UIDAI plans to ban private entities form storing Aadhaar photocopies: Here is the alternative

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will be introducing new rule that will mandate registration of entities seeking Aadhaar based verification.

This move aims to discourage entities like hotels, event organisers from taking Aadhaar's photocopy of customers and storing them in physical form.

UIDAI has launched 'Aadhaar Paperless Offline e-KYC Verification' that will allow Aadhaar number holders to use it for identity verification.

"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," UIDAI CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar said.

As per UIDAI website, online e-KYC offers enhanced privacy and security. Aadhaar paperless offline e-KYC is voluntary and Aadhaar number holder driven, it stated.

Here is how to obtain Aadhaar Paperless Offline e-KYC data:

- Users can go to the 'mAadhaar' portal and download Aadhaar Paperless Offline e-KYC.

- Users will soon be also able to download mAadhaar app on a registered phone number; inbound SMS; and Aadhaar Seva Kendra using biometric authentication.

- While downloading offline e-KYC data, these are the details covered: Name, download reference number, address, photo, gender, date of birth and year, mobile number and email, both in hashed form.

The new verification process will also resolve issues related to several works that get hampered due to downtime of intermediate servers that connect with the central Aadhaar database.

"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.

(With PTI inputs)