Journalist exposing Aadhaar breach deserves award, not probe: Snowden

Tribune News Service

 

Chandigarh, January 9

 

US whistleblower Edward Snowden on Tuesday said that the journalists exposing the Aadhaar breach deserved an award and not an investigation.

 

Responding to Editor-in-Chief’s statement on the FIR lodged against The Tribune and its reporter for a story on Aadhaar data breach, he said: “The journalists exposing the Aadhaar breach deserve an award, not an investigation. If the government were truly concerned for justice, they would be reforming the policies that destroyed the privacy of a billion Indians. Want to arrest those responsible? They are called @UIDAI.”

 

The Tribune in an exclusive report on Thursday had exposed how the Aadhaar data of a billion people was being sold by “agents” for a mere Rs 500.

 

A news report published with the title, “Rs 500, 10 minutes, and you have access to billion Aadhaar details”, had reported how a service was being offered by anonymous sellers over WhatsApp that provided unrestricted access to details for any of the more than 1 billion Aadhaar numbers created in India thus far.

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