New Delhi, January 18: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has added new security features in the past few months to address privacy concerns of over 119 crore Aadhaar card holders. In a bid to weed out black money and bring transparency in the system, the government has made it mandatory to link Aadhaar with PAN, bank accounts, mobile numbers and various social schemes. The government has already extended the deadlines for linking Aadhaar various services to March 31, 2018.

The government in December 2017 had issued a notification to extend till March 31 the deadline for mandatory quoting of Aadhaar and Permanent Account Number (PAN) for bank accounts and certain financial transactions. However, there is no word on extending the February 6, 2018 deadline for linking mobile SIM cards with Aadhaar.  In simple words, if you haven’t linked your PAN, Bank account or welfare schemes with 12-digit unique identity number, you still have about 2 months to complete the process. It must be noted that the deadline for linking Aadhaar with SIM is February 6, 2018.

Here are the recently launched security features:

Aadhaar virtual ID: 

UIDAI, the authority that issues Aadhaar to all the Indians introduced a new concept of ‘Virtual ID’ which Aadhaar-card holder can generate from its website - uidai.gov.in. The latest move will be beneficial for various purposes, including SIM verification, instead of sharing the actual 12-digit biometric ID.  The Virtual ID, which is believed to be a random 16-digit number, together with biometrics of the user would give any authorised agency limited details like name, address and photograph, which are enough for any verification.

The Virtual ID will be a temporary and revocable 16-digit random number which will be mapped to a person’s Aadhaar number. UIDAI-the Aadhaar-issuing body will start accepting the virtual ID from March 1, 2018. From June 1, 2018 it will be compulsory for all agencies that undertake authentication to accept the Virtual ID from their users.

It must be noted that a user can generate as many Virtual IDs as he or she wants as the older ID gets automatically cancelled once a fresh one is generated. The UIDAI has also introduced the concept of ‘limited KYC’. Under this, the Aadhaar issuing body will only provide need-based or limited details of a user to an authorised agency that is providing a particular service, say, a telco. The launch the virtual ID will help users to share limited details at the time of authentication.

Facial recognition feature:

The UIDAI, in the last week, allowed face recognition as additional means of Aadhaar authentication. This security feature will be used in combination with existing ways such as fingerprint or iris scan. With the introduction of the facial recognition feature, individuals who face problems in other biometric authentication like fingerprint and iris can now get their authentication done without any hassle. At present, there are only two modes of biometric authentication allowed under Aadhaar- the fingerprint authentication and iris authentication.

As per reports, the newly launched facility is being allowed only in a ‘fusion mode’ that is along with other existing means of authentication and will be available by July 1, 2018, an official release said. The UIDAI in its statement said that this facility is going to help in inclusive authentication of those who are not able to biometrically authenticate due to their worn-out fingerprints, old age or hard work conditions.

From March 1, users will have the option of generating a 16-digit virtual identity which individuals can provide at the time of authentication. The face recognition authentication provides additional option for all residents to have inclusive authentication. The UIDAI confirmed in its statement said it shall be allowed only in fusion mode along with one more authentication factor combined with either fingerprint or iris or OTP to be able to successfully authenticate an Aadhaar number holder. The new method will also be allowed “on need basis”.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 18, 2018 11:55 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).