UIDAI bans company for tweeting MS Dhoni’s Aadhaar

New Delhi: The Unique Identification Authority of India has blacklisted for 10 years a company for publicly sharing cricketer M.S. Dhoni’s Aadhaar details.

“We have blacklisted VLE (Village Level Entrepreneur) who enrolled M.S. Dhoni for leaking Aadhaar receipt which carried his personal information. At UIDAI, we are very strict on the privacy issue,” UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey said.

“We have ordered further inquiry on the matter and action will be taken against all those involved in the leak,” Mr Pandey said.

He said action will be taken even against those involved in tweeting the picture of the receipt through the official Twitter account (CSCeGov) of the state-run CSC e-Governance Services.

The agency’s Common Services Centre (CSC) through its handle @CSCegov posted a tweet on Tuesday, saying “ace cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his family get their Aadhaar updated at VLE Mariya Farooqui’s CSE at Ranchi, Jharkhand”. Mr Dhoni’s wife Sakshi had flagged the matter and complained about it to law and information technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad over leaking personal details.

It included a photograph of the cricketer with a CSC representative and another of his personal details on what appeared to be the Aadhaar website.

“Is there any privacy left? Information of Aadhaar card, including application, is made public property,” Ms Sakshi had tweeted.

Mr Prasad had replied that action will be taken on the issue. “Sharing personal information is illegal. Serious action will be taken against this,” the minister said.