#Flashback: Why Aadhaar helpline number appeared in your contacts
Back in August 2018, Android users across India were surprised to find the UIDAI Aadhaar helpline number saved in their phone contacts without ever adding it themselves.
This weird discovery quickly went viral, with people raising big questions about privacy and who really controls what's on their devices.
Turns out, it all traced back to a slip-up by Google during Android's setup process.
What Google said
Google later admitted it had accidentally bundled the now-defunct UIDAI helpline and emergency number 112 into Android phones way back in 2014.
That meant these numbers just showed up automatically when anyone set up or restored their device.
Google apologized for the mix-up and promised not to preload random contacts like this again.
Lesson from the episode
UIDAI clarified they had nothing to do with adding the number and pointed out that it was outdated anyway.
While there wasn't any security risk, the whole episode made people rethink how much say they have over what comes pre-installed on their phones—and reminded everyone it's okay to delete stuff you didn't ask for.