'Virtual ID' by UIDAI to address privacy concerns in Aadhaar

By Shweta Arya

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Wednesday announced the implementation of a number of new processes aimed at making Aadhaar more ‘secure'. As far as most citizens are concerned, the most relevant part of these changes is what is being called the Virtual ID. According to the circular, Virtual ID or VID, will be a temporary, revocable 16-digit random number that is mapped to your Aadhaar number. 

The circular claims it will be generated in a manner such that if you gave your VID to someone, they will not be able to derive your Aadhaar number from it.

All service provides and other agencies will only be able to do what UIDAI is calling “limited KYC” in which they will only get access to a few demographic details and a UID token authenticating the VID, instead of the Aadhaar number of the user itself. This is aimed at ensuring they cannot store the Aadhaar number.

All these changes point to one thing: The sharing of Aadhaar numbers is a dangerous thing, and can be misused. Aadhaar numbers have been readily available to anyone who would like to find them. A Google search could turn up Aadhaar numbers that had been hosted on government websites. A large number of state websites were found to be publicly displaying Aadhaar numbers along with names and other demographic data. As per the UIDAI, agencies that undertake authentication would now not be allowed to generate the Virtual ID on behalf of Aadhaar holder.