Google[1] has finally put the controversy of [2]UIDAI[3] contact showing up[4] seemingly randomly in people's phones at rest and confirmed that the issue didn't result from any directive by any authority in India but due to a software issue in Android[5]. The controversy under which UIDAI's now-decommissioned toll-free number was spotted by many mobile phone users in the country can be traced back to 2014, Google said, when the then UIDAI[6] number and the 112 distress helpline number were "inadvertently coded" within the Android setup wizard and has remained on devices, the company confirmed to Gadgets 360 via an emailed statement late on Friday.
"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," a Google spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Gadgets 360. "Since the numbers get listed on a user's contact list, these get transferred accordingly to the contacts on any new device. We are sorry for any concern that this might have caused, and would like to assure everyone that this is not a situation of any unauthorised access of their Android devices. Users can manually delete the number from their devices."
The spokesperson also confirmed that the issue is set to be fixed in an upcoming release of the setup wizard that will be provided to OEMs over the next few weeks.
If you are wondering how iPhone[7] users reported the number showing up in their contacts, it's likely down to the fact that they synced their contacts with a...