Yesterday there was massive brouhaha on Social Media about the Aadhaar helpline number mysteriously appearing on people’s contact list. There were concerns raised about the security of data and how the UIDAI could possibly access people’s phonebooks and add the helpline number without requisite permission or authorisation.
Many took to Twitter including security experts to talk about the helpline number appearing on phones. The French security researcher claimed that it was “surprising and interesting” that the Aadhaar helpline number was added to people’s contact list.
Do you have @UIDAI in your contact list by default?
— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) August 2, 2018
No need to worry, it’s just a contact. It’s also very…surprising and interesting
— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) August 2, 2018
Alderson had not made any assertions of phones being “hacked” to feed the helpline number. However, soon many journalists and news agencies jumped on the bandwagon and claimed that phones have been “hacked” nationally and that this was “bizarre”.
Times Now did a story that claimed that “Androids have been hacked nationally”.
Androids hacked nationally, UIDAI toll-free helpline number has automatically appeared on Android phones, set into our phone contact list.
Athar Khan with the details pic.twitter.com/RZ2ziypUiS
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) August 3, 2018
Other journalists too, toed the same line.
Just spoke to the UIDAI chairman’s office. They say they are not responsible for the 1800-300-1947 nmber mysteriously appearing on phones. This is therefore a mass hack attack.
— Aman Malik (@PatrakaarPopat) August 3, 2018
Journalists spread rumours far and wide. Even Nidhi Razdan jumped into the mix to say that the numbers were appearing on iPhone as well.
This fear mongering also found its way to WhatsApp, ironically, right when the mainstream media has been discussing WhatsApp being used to spread panic.
It was a WhatsApp forward from a group . Some of its members found this entry in their group. https://t.co/v04MqlM7pE
— Prabhu Chawla (@PrabhuChawla) August 3, 2018
Soon, UIDAI clarified that it had not asked any service provider or even Android to include the helpline numbers.
UIDAI has reiterated that it has not asked or advised anyone including any telecom service providers or mobile manufacturers or Android to include 18003001947 or 1947 in the default list of public service numbers.
#### 5/5— Aadhaar (@UIDAI) August 3, 2018
UIDAI also mentioned that the toll-free number was “invalid and outdated”.
#PressStatement In the wake of some media reports on default inclusion of UIDAI’s outdated & invalid Toll free no. 1800-300-1947 in contact list of Android phones… 1/n
— Aadhaar (@UIDAI) August 3, 2018
Unfortunately, patience isn’t a virtue in journalism anymore and evidently, neither is research.
Upon investigating further, we found a tweet from a tech analyst and IT security expert from 2016 that claimed that phone makers were starting to hard code Aadhaar/UIDAI toll-free number in the contact list. He provided screenshots of the number being added on a MotoG4.
So phone makers are starting to hard code Aadhar/UIDAI toll free number in the contacts lists, saw this on MotoG4 Play #coercion pic.twitter.com/mFHZnlmDFF
— Prasanna (@terminalfix) December 7, 2016
Turns out, the mass hysteria could have been averted if journalists had just done a little more research. Prasanna’s assertions back in 2016 turned out to be true when Google tweeted their clarification and apologised
— Google India (@GoogleIndia) August 3, 2018
The Google explanation said that since 2014, the then UIDAI helpline number and the 112 distress number was coded into the Setup Wizard of Andriod and have remained there since. Google assured that it was not the case of any unauthorised access and apologised for any inconvenience caused. They also reiterated that users can manually delete the number if they so choose and that they are working towards fixing the upcoming version of the Setup Wizard.
Eventhough UIDAI too issued an explanation, their statement was misinterpreted by some to mean that UIDAI was disowning the number and saying that it wasn’t a toll-free helpline of Aadhaar to begin with.
.@UIDAI, how do you explain this? Can you clarify why this is there on the back side of the Aadhaar card? pic.twitter.com/eQXRXIxA2c
— BOOM FactCheck (@boomlive_in) August 3, 2018
UIDAI had mentioned that their new helpline was active for the past 2 years and that the number which was fed into the phone was invalid and no longer in use. Considering Google mentioned that the number was coded into the phone in 2014, the fact that UIDAI now uses a different helpline number for the past 2 years is not far-fetched.
There were also people who complained of the number mysteriously appearing on the Apple phones.
While Google explained how it was coded into the Android devices, it also mentioned that since the numbers get listed in the contacts list, it can get transferred to any new device through contacts considering Android users use Gmail to sync their contacts.
While Google has published a detailed explanation, one would imagine that the fear mongering could have been averted by more research considering news of the numbers being coded into the phone were strife from at least 2016.
