Hyderabad: Civil Supplies Commissioner C. V. Anand has alerted his officials on the necessity of keeping Aadhar information as a secret. “It is the responsibility of every employee not to disclose the demographic as well as other information collected from the beneficiaries at the time of issuance of Ration cards and so on. If it is still on display at any place like online sites, he advised them to withdraw it immediately.
Anand was addressing a review meeting with the officials of the IT wing of his department and also of the NIC on Sunday. The meeting was in response to the letter written by Govt of India as well as UIDI.
Anand informed the meeting that any act of publishing identity or information i.e., Aadhar Number and demographic details along with personal
sensitive information such as bank details, in contravention of the Aadhar Act 2016 and the Information Technology Act 2000 may be refrained with immediate effect. As per various provisions of Aadhar Act 2016, inter-alia 29(2), 29(3), 29(4) publishing of Aadhaar number or other demographic
information was not allowed and such action constitutes an offence under Sections 37, 40 & 41, which is punishable with an imprisonment up to three years, he added.
The Civil Supplies Commissioner also alerted the employees at all levels, including that of outsourcing and contract employees that publishing of financial information, including bank details, being sensitive personal data, is also in contravention of provision under IT Act, 2000 with violations liable to pay damages by way of compensation to persons affected.
He warned them not publish any personal identifiable data including Aadhar in public domatin/website etc. and not to store biometric information of Aadhar holders collected for authentication and also not to store any Aadhar based data in any unprotected endpoint devices such as PCs, laptops or smart phones or tablets or any other devices/gadgets like Floppies, CDs, DVDs, Pendrives etc. He also advised them not to print/display out personally identifiable Aadhaar data mapped with any other departmental data such as on ration card. Aadhaar number if required to be printed, Aadhaar number should be truncated or masked, he suggested. He informed them that only last four digits of Aadhaar can be displayed/printed.
The Commissioner cautioned them against capturing/storing/using Aadhar data without the consent of the resident as per Aadhaar Act. The purpose of using the Aadhaar information, needs to be disclosed to the resident, he clarified. (NSS)
Anand directs staff not to disclose Aadhar info.
