UIDAI issues guidelines to entities doing offline verification of Aadhaar

The Unique Identification Authority of India has issued a set of guidelines for offline verification of identities, asking entities performing the verification of Aadhaar to not collect or store data of citizens. The UIDAI also asked them to perform verification after the explicit consent of the Aadhaar number holder.

The authority asked Offline Verification Seeking Identities (OVSE) to maintain a log or record of the explicit consent received from residents for any future audit by UIDAI or any other legal agency.

OVSEs conduct offline verification for various reasons, including for identification and KYC processes locally, without connecting to the Central Identities Data Repository of UIDAI. If any misuse of information is noticed, verification entities need to inform UIDAI and the resident concern within 72 hours.

If these entities need to keep the data of any Aadhaar user for any reason, it must be done in a masked manner, the UIDAI said in a statement.

It said the entities should use the Quick Response (QR) code present on all forms of the Aadhaar card instead of asking for either a physical or electronic copy from the person whose verification is to be done.

Any Aadhaar can be verified using the QR code available on all forms of Aadhaar, using mAadhaar App, or Aadhaar QR code Scanner.

“Entities have been urged to ensure that no services are denied to any resident for refusing to or being unable to undergo offline verification of Aadhaar, provided the resident is able to identify himself/ herself through other viable alternatives,” the guidelines say.

They say entities need to be courteous to residents and assure them about the security and confidentiality of their Aadhaar while conducting offline verification.