New Aadhaar rules soon: No photocopy of Aadhaar card, new app and more

A new rule aimed at discouraging entities like hotels and event organisers from taking photocopies of customers' Aadhaar cards and storing them in physical form will be published soon, a senior government official said.

Such practices are in contravention of the present Aadhaar Act. Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar told PTI that the authority has approved a new rule mandating the registration of entities that seek Aadhaar-based verification. This will provide them access to new technology enabling identity verification by scanning a QR code or connecting with a new Aadhaar app currently in the works."The new rule has been approved by the authority and will be notified soon. It will mandate registration of offline verification-seeking entities like hotels, event organisers. The objective is to discourage paper-based Aadhaar verification," Kumar told PTI. The new verification process is expected to resolve issues related to service disruptions caused by the downtime of intermediate servers connecting to the central Aadhaar database.

According to the official, entities seeking offline verification will be granted access to an API (application programming interface), allowing them to update their systems for seamless Aadhaar verification.UIDAI is currently beta-testing a new app designed to facilitate app-to-app verification. This method eliminates the need to connect to the central Aadhaar database server for every transaction. The new app is versatile and can be utilized at various touchpoints, including airports and shops requiring age verification for specific products."The ease of verification will enhance offline verification without the use of paper while maintaining privacy of users or any risk of their Aadhaar data getting leaked for misuse," Kumar said.The official added that the new app is expected to finetune Aadhaar authentication services in alignment with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, which is set to become fully operational in 18 months.Additionally, the app will empower users to update address proof documents directly and add family members who do not possess a mobile phone to the same app.