Smartphone Users Worried as A Strange Number Appeared in their Contact List

The smartphone users have expressed their worry as a strange number kept appearing in their contact lists. The smartphone users in India took it to Twitter and shared the screenshots of their phone’s contact lists.

Indians complained that a strange number kept on adding itself to their contact’s list without their approval or knowledge, they claimed that they have not added the number themselves.

According to the reports of The Verge, the number 1-800-300-1947 is recognized as a toll-free number for the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The number has been appearing in the contact lists of the Android devices. The number even appeared on iPhones, however only if the contacts were imported by the users from any Android phone previously.

Also Read: Microsoft tests out your phone app for Android users

Additionally, UIDAI has denied that it has got anything to do with the matter by forcing the number onto the smartphones. As per a statement, the government body mentioned that it has restated that it has not asked or suggested any telecom service provider or any mobile makers or Android about including the UIDAI number in the default list of public service numbers.

Later, the security professionals and users took to the service providers, the Indian government and to the Android looking for answers, while some others conducted their own tests and experiments for learning the reason behind this occurrence.

Some people indicated that Google is responsible as the number is only seen on the Android devices that are manufactured in India. Some people said that the number was forced by the service providers like Vodafone, however, later it rejected the accusation on Indian Express.

Almost after a day, the number was noticed, Google accepted putting it on the devices. As per a statement to the Economic Times, the Google spokesperson said that their internal review in 2014 indicated that the UIDAI helpline number and the 112-distress helpline number were unintentionally coded into the Android release provided to the OEMs for the Indian users and it has remained in the SetUp wizard since then.

Goole representative further said that they are sorry for any trouble that has been caused and would like to ensure that this is not any situation of unauthorized access to their Android devices.

More Read: Google Maps introduces location sharing with battery life