Behind Aadhaar flip flop: Plaints, confusion

An advisory by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) cautioning customers towards sharing a photocopy of the doc was issued after its regional workplace in Bengaluru acquired complaints about Aadhaar particulars of some folks being photoshopped and misused, authorities officers stated.

The advisory was withdrawn by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Sunday on account of it being “misinterpreted”. Instead, the Ministry stated, Aadhaar holders are “advised to exercise normal prudence in using and sharing” their card particulars.

“After UIDAI’s Bengaluru office received some complaints of Aadhaar details being altered using photoshop, they were alarmed by the possibility of its misuse. So they issued a statement urging people to not share photocopies of Aadhaar with unauthorised entities. But the advisory was causing a lot of confusion and could have been misinterpreted,” an official within the know stated.

The preliminary advisory, issued final Friday, stated residents ought to share their Aadhaar particulars solely with entities which have a “user licence” from UIDAI. It didn’t specify find out how to confirm this person licence. It added: “Do not share photocopy of your Aadhaar with any organisations because it can be misused. Alternatively, please use a masked Aadhaar which displays only the last 4 digits of your Aadhaar number.”

Best of Express PremiumPremiumPremiumPremiumPremium

While withdrawing the advisory, MeitY stated, “Aadhaar identity authentication ecosystem has provided adequate features for protecting and safeguarding the identity and privacy of the Aadhaar holder”. It added that individuals ought to train “normal prudence” whereas sharing their Aadhaar particulars, with out elaborating on what “normal prudence” constitutes. Queries despatched to the UIDAI didn’t elicit a response till publication.

Friday’s advisory caught folks abruptly who took to social media to complain that they commonly share photocopies of Aadhaar for a variety of providers from getting SIM playing cards, opening financial institution accounts, and checking into motels, amongst different issues. The advisory additionally gave the impression to be in stark distinction with a rivalry made by UIDAI’s former chief after which TRAI chairman RS Sharma, who in 2018 had shared his Aadhaar quantity on Twitter, difficult a person to indicate a “concrete example” of how the quantity may very well be used to “harm” him.

While critics have routinely flagged privacy-related dangers of Aadhaar, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), launched in April, famous that UIDAI had not ensured that the functions or units utilized by companies or non-public corporations for Aadhaar authentication had been “capable of storing personal information… which put the privacy of residents at risk”.

Buy Now | Our finest subscription plan now has a particular worth

In 2018, the Supreme Court had struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act, which basically allowed non-public entities to gather residents’ Aadhaar particulars. While studying down the availability, the highest courtroom had known as it “unconstitutional”. Soon after the judgment, nevertheless, the UIDAI had clarified to banks that Aadhaar know-your-customer (eKYC) can be utilized to authenticate beneficiaries of presidency subsidies and welfare schemes, paving the way in which for personal banks to make use of the doc to establish beneficiaries of presidency welfare schemes.

A couple of months later, the Centre issued the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019, which allowed banks and telecom operators to gather Aadhaar particulars as a proof of identification. After the Centre launched the Covid vaccination programme, a plea was filed within the Supreme Court in 2021, claiming that the Aadhaar card was being mandatorily insisted upon for administering vaccines. The authorities then knowledgeable the highest courtroom that Aadhaar was not obligatory for registration on CoWin.