Prindi

Abdul Salam Mohammed

Title: PRIVACY AND SECURITY RISKS WITH AADHAR CARD: STUDY OF MEDIA DISCOURSES ON REPORTING VARIOUS THIRD-PARTY DATA BREACHES

Supervisor: Shobhit Shakya, MSc

Opponent: Dr. Tayfun Kasapoglu

Defense: 19 January 2022

 

Abstract: The study aims to measure the role of media in reporting third-party breaches of Aadhar cards. This study focuses on addressing the issues in critical discourse analysis. This analysis evaluates the issues based on text and discourse practices. Qualitative analysis uses to measure the third-party data breaches of Aadhar cards. Aadhar card breaches are classified into four themes: data leakages, privacy issues, security breaches, and data protection & privacy measures. Data leakages create intentional and unintentional threats. Most of the third-party company threats are intentional only. Intentional threats are in the form of improper encryption of Aadhar information in websites & apps or an online gateway platform. A relatively small number of unintentional threats finds due to improper encryption and publish information on websites and environmental hazards. Next, privacy issues arise due to misuse of personal information and unauthorized access to information. These issues are giving political benefits and financial benefits to the attackers. Security issues arise owing to data theft, sabotage, and social engineering, but Indian residents are more prone to data theft. So, actions like physical access control, personal data protection, creating a new password, legal actions, data removal, shutting down websites and apps, and debar the third-party to use the information to protect the Aadhar information from the third-party parties. Finally, the study concludes that data breaches of Aadhar information of the third-party prevail more in India. UIDAI should take action to protect the Aadhar ecosystem. Such action can diminish data breaches to happen soon.

 

Keywords: Aadhar card, privacy issues, security issues, data breaches and third parties