Govt Stops Citizens From Sharing Aadhaar Photocopies With Anyone; Withdraws This Advisory Later

Update: Govt has withdrawn the advisory shared earlier, about not sharing photocopies of Aadhaar card. However, they have advised that only a masked copy of Aadhaar can be used, which shows only last 4 characters.

Govt’s statement: “UIDAI issued Aadhaar card holders are only advised to exercise normal prudence in using and sharing their UIDAI Aadhaar numbers.”

Earlier..

An order has been issued by the Indian government wherein the citizens have been asked to not share the photocopy of their Aadhar card with anyone, may it be some organizations.

It is stated in the order that the sharing as well as distributing of the photocopy can lead to misuse.

Aadhaar is an integral document in India, used for application purposes. And to avoid its misuse, you should start following the advice given by the Indian Government right away.

Do Not Share Aadhar : UIDAI

In a press release, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said in a statement that “Do not share photocopy of your Aadhaar with any organisations because it can be misused.”

Even for the verification or documentation process, citizens have been asked to practice prudence, said the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY).

It has also been advised in the release that one should also try not to access the Aadhaar copies from public computers that are available at cyber cafes.

If in case of any urgency one has to resort to access and download Aadhar data to such systems, then after the use one should delete the file from the system as well as the recycle bin.

Not only MeiTY has given a heads up to citizens but also the entity order has a word of caution for entities that is involved in use of Aadhaar for different purposes.

If an organization has the relevant licenses to use Aadhaar for identifying a person and also they have a licence from UIDAI, then only will such organizations will be rightful in the eyes of UIDAI.

Places like hotels and movie halls have been restricted from collecting and keeping copies of Aadhaar card and indulging in any such activity is an offence under the Aadhaar Act 2016.

But then, what if one wants to share one’s Aadhar. Is there a workaround or a way which has the nod of the UIDAI. Yes, read more to know.

How to Securely Share Aadhar?

Masked Aadhar card is the solution for the above perils. One can share the last four digits of Aadhar card. 

Anyone with a legitimate Aadhaar number can download it from the official website of UIDAI over here.

One has to select the “Do you want a masked Aadhaar” option and download the copy.  

There is also a secure way to verify the Aadhar number. All one has to do is to head over to https://myaadhaar.uidai.gov.in/verifyAadhaar and get the official status of the Aadhaar number. 

This verification can also be done in the offline mode. All one has to do is to scan the QR code which is available on the e-Aadhaar card using the QR code scanner present in the mAadhaar mobile app which is available for both Android and iPhone users.