Aadhaar Card Linked App Developed For Citizen Verification; Can It Incite Identity Thefts?

Swabhimaanya, an organization authorized by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has created India’s first Aadhaar Card linked app to verify any Indian citizen instantly.

Termed as ‘TrustId’, this app has been specially developed for authenticating domestic helps and workers from unorganized sector.

Rahul Pagare, the CEO and founder of Swabhimaanya said, “The mobile application aims to provide instant verification using the Aadhaar number, name, gender and phone number of a person in less than a minute. It is a sort of assurance that the person is who he/she is says he/she is,”

How It Works

After downloading the app, the user needs to enter the Aadhaar Card + Name and Gender of the person he or she wishes to verify. The app will directly connect with the main Aadhaar Card database, and authenticate the user as per the requirements.

Each user shall get 25 credit checks, which would be free. After that, Rs 5 would be charged for each credit check.

Besides, the organization behind this app: Swabhimaanya also provides professional background check services which are paid and detailed.

Now, in case the Aadhaar card details are not present for any user (maybe they don’t have any Aadhaar Card), then TrustID will automatically add that person’s details in their own database, which can be used by any other person when searching the same.

TrustID has tied up with Gurgaon police as of now, so that domestic helps, tenants, employees can be verified. Once a person is verified using this app, that person is automatically registered with Gurgaon police.

Identity Theft Made Easy?

There are 98 crore Indians who have Aadhaar Cards right now in India, and such open access to Aadhaar Card details of any Indian has raised concerns of privacy protection and identity thefts.

What if a gang which specializes in identity theft targets an individual, and retrieves all data pertaining to that person using this app? Last year in October, we had reported how Aadhaar Card linked identity frauds are increasing all over the country, and how old age people are scammed into giving their details which are exploited by fraudsters.

When Government declared that new businesses which wants to be get registered should first apply for Aadhaar Card, then the move vehemently opposed by advocates of privacy protection in India. In fact, Govt. is planning to link SIM cards with Aadhar Card, banks are planning to use Aadhaar Card for biometric authentication during point of sale; and even Know Your Customer procedure has been linked with Aadhaar Card.

With TrustID, the only security feature is that, once a person is being verified using this app, that person will receive a call, informing that he or she is being verified.

But is this enough to protect identity of 98 crore Indians, whose data is right now stored insider Aadhaar Card database?

Do let us know by commenting right here.