Google Takes Blame For UIDAI Contact Showing Up On Your Phone

Hyderabad: Google has finally put an end to the UIDAI contact mystery. The company said that the UIDAI helpline number appearing on the contact list of some Android phones is not because of any government directive but because some distress numbers were ‘inadvertently coded’ into the Android setup.

“Our internal review has revealed that in 2014, the then UIDAI helpline number and the 112 distress helpline number were inadvertently coded into the SetUp wizard of the Android release given to OEMs for use in India and has remained there since. Since the numbers get listed on a user’s contact list these get transferred accordingly to the contacts on any new device,” a statement from Google mentioned.

The search engine giant apologised for “any concern that this might have caused” and also said that it “would like to assure everyone that this is not a situation of an unauthorised access of their Android devices”.

For those Apple iPhone users who have also reported seeing the UIDAI number on their phones, it is because of synced contacts from Gmail account that was previously installed in an Android phone.

UIDAI earlier on Friday, tweeted countering the accusations and clarified that it had not asked any telcom service provider or mobile manufacturer to include 18003001947 or 1947.