Thread by @Rnb129

Okay, so looks like nobody is being entirely honest about the #UIDAIMystery. Not the Government, Not @UIDAI, not @GoogleIndia, not phone manufacturers either.

The handset makers say every device on startup connects to the net and downloads a set of Emergency numbers for that country
In that case
1. Can your device just connect to the net and download any contact?
2. On what basis did they decide it's just two for India, 112 & #UIDAI?

Most users reported seeing this number in their Phone contacts, not SIM or Google synced contacts. This doesn't appear to be much of a SIM issue. I ported recently and the new SIM has their own set of default numbers, no #UIDAI, though some are reported to include it officially.

Google says they included the two nos in setup file given to Phone makers in 2014.
1. Long time user of Phone contacts, only switched to iCloud/Google sync recently. I've never seen that #UIDAI number. Did i miss something all these years?
2. Who told Google it's just two nos?

What is so "inadvertent" about it if those are indeed Govt-approved emergency numbers? Google could just say that! Why the coyness?

"Provided in setup file" is also at odds with the "connected and downloaded emergency contacts" explanation OEMs are giving. Are OEMs that clueless?

If Google really cared about putting basic contacts, they wouldn't leave in 2018 models a defunct default number lying there supposedly since 2014.

Long story short, my guess is someone mistakenly thought of the #UIDAI helpline as important as say, the US Social Security service when we aren't there yet, and decided it's important enough to include. That's all there is to it. And it's far more recent than 2014.

Case in point- following yesterday's brouhaha reporters tried to examine new Android handsets. Most of them had the #UIDAI number preloaded, including in models yet to release in India. So the "surreptiously hacking by backdoor" brigade can take a walk.

Everyone is just embarrassed to admit that they dont know how it works, or why nobody saw it for 4 years. Default during setup could only be the plausible explanation for #UIDAI appearing as a contact. Let's stop spinning jobless conspiracy theories and not spread panic please

Your location is tracked by the service provider or Wi-Fi provider even when location service is off, Facebook is known to use camera and microphone without your permission, but your target is a bunch of babus over a default number? @krithikasivasw here u go!

"My aunts r freaked...they dint even get the contact in the list...its via forward"

Sample of what I got from a friend. That appears to be the motive. Fear mongering, playing on psychology, using a few trigger words

And as it turns out this was a directive from the UPA govt in 2013. There really is no Mystery in #UIDAIMystery. It's there in your phone per a 2013 directive to take out the dysfunctional number. There's just been terrible PR by all parties involved.