75% Active SIM Cards Can Be Deactivated If Not Linked With Aadhaar Before February

Unless you have been staying inside a cave, at a remote island in Pacific Ocean, you must have received repeated requests from your telecom operator regarding linking your SIM card with Aadhaar.

Soon, these requests will convert into warning and eventually a threat.

As per latest reports coming in, it has been confirmed that those SIM card which are not linked with Aadhaar would be deactivated after February, 2017.

Can Supreme Court consider it as a violation of privacy? We will soon find out..

Link With Aadhaar Or Else..

Based on a judgement passed by Supreme Court in the Lokniti foundation case in February this year, Govt. is pushing all telecom operators to ask their users for linking their respective SIM Cards, by February, 2018 latest.

During that case, the apex court had ordered Govt. to verify all pre-paid SIMs with a credible source of authentication, for which Govt. had proposed Aadhaar.

Govt. had asked time for a year to implement this massive verification procedure, the deadline for which is ending in February, 2018.

75% Of SIM Cards Can Be Deactivated!

As per details shared by Unique Identification Authority of India, out of 128 crore SIM cards active in India as of July, 2017, 33.85 crore has been linked with Aadhaar.

This means that only 25% of phone users have linked their Aadhaar with SIM cards, and 75% of those who haven’t, face the risk of being disconnected.

Note here, that out of 128 crore active SIM cards, 90% of them are pre-paid.

As per Govt. officials, this linking has been asked to be done at the physical stores of telecom operators, as online linking is prone to security risks.

A Govt. official said, “Online linking of mobile number has a security risk. If a fraudster knows your Aadhaar number, name and other details, then he can link a mobile number to your Aadhaar…and if he commits a crime, police will reach your home.”

Here is a breakdown of active SIM cards connected with Aadhaar, telecom operator wise:

Airtel: 35.01 crore active SIMs; 7.55 crore connected with Aadhaar

Idea: 26.08 crore active SIMs; 7.99 crore connected with Aadhaar

Vodafone: 25.90 crore active SIMs; 4.5 crore connected with Aadhaar

Reliance Jio: 12.32 crore active SIMs; 10.78 crore connected with Aadhaar

40% Of Smartphone Users’ Data With CIA?

Meanwhile, in an interesting development, it was found that a Govt. official, who has now retired, has confirmed that privacy is a myth, and our digital data is already being shared with the whole ‘world’, including CIA!

Rajiv Mehrishi, who has retired last week as Union Home Secretary, has said to a parliamentary panel in July that 40% of all smartphone users have knowingly or unknowingly shared their details and information with ‘entire world including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)’.

These comments were made when he faced a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, chaired by senior Congress leader P Chidambaram.

Have you linked your SIM Card with Aadhaar? If no, then how long will you wait? Do let us know by commenting right here!