NEW DELHI: In yet another attack on the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party Trinamool Congress has alleged a major breach in the database of all vaccinated Indians. While the TMC did not name the source of the data leak, since it is of vaccinated Indians, the breach is likely in the Aarogya Setu database. Aarogya Setu has been under the lens for being allegedly invasive and violating data privacy norms. The government has in past denied any breach in Aarogya Setu, which is a coronavirus-tracking application that houses the data of millions of users.


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In a series of tweets, TMC leader Saket Gokhale said, there has been a major data breach where personal details of "all vaccinated Indians", including their mobile numbers, Aadhaar numbers, Passport numbers, Voter ID, details of family members etc, have been leaked are freely available.” Gokhale also shared of screenshots of people whose data has been allegedly leaked, including several Opposition leaders like Rajya Sabha MP and TMC leader Derek O'Brien, Congress leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram and Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and KC Venugopal, among others. He also claimed that the personal details of senior journalists like Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, Dhanya Rajendran and Rahul Shivshankar have also been leaked.


 



 


Gokhale, the TMC National Spokesperson, also alleged that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre is literally not aware of this big data breach and has failed to inform the Indian citizens about it.



 


Trying to seek answers from the Centre, the TMC leader sought to know who has the Modi Govt given access to sensitive personal data of Indians including Aadhaar and Passport numbers. Gokhale, while training his guns at the Centre, also sought to know how this leak happened in the Arogya Setu database.


Calling it a matter of "serious national concern" the TMC leader also attacked Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Minister who heads the Electronics, Communications, & IT portfolios in addition to the Railways, for this major data leak and pressed for his immediate resignation from the Union Cabinet. “How long will the incompetence of Ashwini Vaishnaw be ignored by PM Modi?’’ he sought to know through a tweet.


 



 


Aarogya Setu is a coronavirus-tracking application that houses the data of millions of users. It has been criticised by privacy experts for collecting excessive amounts of data which could expose users’ data to malicious actors. If, by any chance, the sensitive information is leaked, it is likely to land in the hands of a hacker, exposing the users’ location, health data and contact information.