UIDAI number is in your contact list; wait, you didn’t save? Who did?

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) toll-free helpline number has been auto-saved to thousands of Indian smartphone users, which has left the nation puzzled up on Friday. Adding to everyone’s surprise, Aadhaar body has said that they did not ask any service provider or manufacturer to add helpline after it appears on smartphones.

UIDAI has replaced the earlier helpline number — 1800-300-1947 — with the new number — 1947.

The news had broken out after French security expert Elliot Alderson took to Twitter to ask UIDAI, “Many people, with different providers, with and without an #Aadhaar card, with and without the mAadhaar app installed, noticed that your phone number is predefined in their contact list by default without their knowledge. Can you explain why?”

 

Hi @UIDAI,

Many people, with different provider, with and without an #Aadhaar card, with and without the mAadhaar app installed, noticed that your phone number is predefined in their contact list by default and so without their knowledge. Can you explain why?

Regards,

— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) August 2, 2018

Do you have @UIDAI in your contact list by default?

— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) August 2, 2018

Also read: Jharkhand government portal leaking users’ identity data: French researcher

Since then, within the early hours of the day, internet and media is flooded with people confirming if the number has been creeped to every citizen. While people checked their contact lists, they were astonished to see that the UIDAI number was pre-saved on their device. Many people took to Twitter and asked how the number was saved on their phone.

@UIDAI @ceouidai who asked you to get into my phone and store your number?!? What all are u doing without my knowledge?

— Varun Kukreti (@Varunkukreti) August 3, 2018

This is super creepy… I have a @UIDAI contact in my list with the number 1800-300-1947 by default. Dialed the number, it is invalid.
Interestingly, it is not there in any iPhones I’ve seen. Any comment from the govt on how this happened? @DoT_India @airtelindia @reliancejio https://t.co/gwXv4ErcKO

— Leroy Leo D’Souza (@LeroyLeo7) August 2, 2018