CoWin Data leak: Crucial information of Covid vaccine recipients leaked on Telegram; deets inside View in English

Date leak: The personal information of a number of Indians who have registered on CoWIN government portal has leaked on Telegram, if reports are to be believed.

It is learnt that when you enter a person's number, the bot of Telegram responds with that particular person's name, passport ID number or PAN, Aadhaar  and gender and birth year.  Saket Gokhale of TMC has tweeted screenshots showing political leaders' leaked data from Telegram.

SHOCKING:

There has been a MAJOR data breach of Modi Govt where personal details of ALL vaccinated Indians including their mobile nos., Aadhaar numbers, Passport numbers, Voter ID, Details of family members etc. have been leaked & are freely available.

Some examples ????

(1/7) — Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) June 12, 2023

Since reports in this regard are viral on social media as well as has been claimed by many media houses too, it points towards a major data leak. Telegram chatbots shows us the personal information of people who are vaccinated against Covid. 

There are several Opposition leaders which include:

1. Rajya Sabha MP & TMC Leader Derek O'Brien

2. Former Union Minister P. Chidambaram

3. Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh & K.C. Venugopal@derekobrienmp @PChidambaram_IN @Jairam_Ramesh @kcvenugopalmp

(2/7) pic.twitter.com/JnD5EKhPBO — Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) June 12, 2023

A news item by The Fourth News, a Malayalam news portal, says the documents related to the mobile number registered in the CoWin portal are available on the channel. It is also possible to know which vaccine was administered and where it was administered.

The Malayala Manorama has reported that due to this data leak, the Aadhar card, voter ID and PAN Card numbers of several Indian citizens are now available on Telegram

The Malayalam daily has also claimed that the data of Secretary of Union Health Ministry Rajesh Bhushan has also leaked. When his number is entered, his all details are available. 

According to The News Minute, the list of people whose data has been leaked includes Telangana's minister of information and communication technology, Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao (popularly known as KTR), DMK MP (member of Parliament) Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, BJP Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram and former union minister of Health Harsh Vardhan. 

On the other hand, experts are of the view that when CoWIN portal had OTP security system , it is a matter of question that how the data got leaked on Telegram.

Meanwhile, MP Karti Chidambaram shared a screenshot of his alleged data leak on the Telegram bot and wrote, "In its Digital India frenzy, GoI has woefully ignored citizen privacy. Personal data of every single Indian who got COVID-19 vaccination is publicly available. Including my own data. Who let this happen? Why is GoI sitting on a data protection law? @AshwiniVaishnaw must answer."

In its Digital India frenzy, GoI has woefully ignored citizen privacy. Personal data of every single Indian who got COVID-19 vaccination is publicly available. Including my own data. Who let this happen? Why is GoI sitting on a data protection law? @AshwiniVaishnaw must answer. pic.twitter.com/mlmq0OuRK5 — Karti P Chidambaram (@KartiPC) June 12, 2023

Earlier, in June last year, there were reports that the vaccination data of 150 million Indians had been leaked, though the authorities had rebutted the reports.

- With inputs from agencies