A Punjab government website exposed the Aadhaar numbers of more than 20,000 people who applied for low-cost housing in Ludhiana and Jagraon, the latest in a string of blunders by administrative officials that jeopardise citizen privacy.

Aadhaar, a 12-digit identity number, is linked to a person’s biometric details and has become increasingly mandatory for government services. Experts and activists have raised concerns over the risks to privacy it poses, and believe the country’s lackadaisical cyber security standards can put confidential information at risk of crimes such as identity theft.

India’s Supreme Court is currently in the process of determining whether the Aadhaar programme violates rights to privacy.

Around 20,100 Aadhaar numbers, the names of the people it belonged to and their father’s name were published on Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) website. The details were published as lists of applicants for EWS houses (homes for people from economically weaker sections) under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) programme, and of those who won the draw.

It was unclear how long the lists were up, but officials removed links leading to them on Monday when Hindustan Times brought it to their attention. The lists, while removed from the homepage, stayed online on the GLADA server and could be accessed by anyone who had the direct link.