'Who let this happen?': Karti Chidambaram slams govt after alleged CoWin data breach

Earlier today, TMC leader Saket Gokhale shared screenshots of a Telegram account allegedly sharing personal details of politicians and journalists.

Updated on: Jun 12, 2023, 12:42:38 IST

By HT News Desk | Written by Ritu Maria Johny | Edited by Chandrashekar Srinivasan

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Congress MP Karti Chidamabaram on Monday demanded answers from union Information Technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw after reports that private details of 'all' vaccinated Indians stored on the government's CoWIN platform had been hacked and leaked online. Chidamabaram accused the government of ignoring privacy issues and tweeted: “In its 'Digital India' frenzy, Government of India 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 Government of India sitting on a data protection law?”

Congress MP Karti Chidambaram (File Photo)

Earlier today, in a lengthy Twitter thread, Trinamool Congress leader Saket Gokhale shared screenshots of an unidentified Telegram account allegedly sharing personal information of political leaders and journalists, including Chidambaram's father and ex-union minister P Chidambaram, as well as those of union health ministry secretary Rajesh Bhushan and Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Haribansh Narayan Singh and Gokhale's colleague Derek O'Brien.

Gokhale also alleged that details of journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, Dhanya Rajendran and Rahul Shivshankar were exposed in the 'major data breach'.

"There has been a MAJOR data breach of Modi government 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 and are freely available."

"This is a matter of national concern," Gokhale tweeted.

Hindustan Times could not independently verify Gokhale's claims.

National Health Authority chief Ram Sewak Sharma and the ministry of electronics and information technology are yet to comment on the allegations of data leak.

Read: Govt dismisses CoWIN data leak reports; will start probe

As of noon on Monday, the developers of the Telegram bot that pulled sensitive private information from the leaked Co-WIN database was disabled. The developers of the bot, according to messages on a Telegram group seen by HT, took the step after Malayalam news site Manorama broke the story and replied “probably yes” when asked if the service will be restored.

The copy will be updated as and when the response by the ministry of health will be made available.

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