Google admits it added UIDAI old helpline number to contact list

New Delhi : Hours after social media exploded with users claiming UIDAI helpline number being added to their contact list without their knowledge, Google admitted that it was their fault.

Google accepted that it had in 2014 inadvertently coded the 112 distress number and the UIDAI number into its setup wizard for Android; this ended a controversy surrounding the mysterious entry of the UIDAI number in the contact lists of many smartphone users around the country.

"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 said. 

Apologising over the "concern it might have caused", the statement from a Google spokesperson said it “would like to assure everyone that this is not a situation of an unauthorised access of their Android devices”.

Users can manually delete the number from their contact list or update it with the new number.