Locking biometrics on Aadhaar likely soon
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the agency that administers Aadhaar, has proposed to allow people to permanently lock their biometrics and introduce a mechanism for offline Aadhaar number verifications, using a system called Aadhaar Number Capture Service Token or ANCS Token.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the agency that administers Aadhaar, has proposed to allow people to permanently lock their biometrics and introduce a mechanism for offline Aadhaar number verifications, using a system called Aadhaar Number Capture Service Token or ANCS Token.
"The authority may enable an Aadhaar number holder to permanently lock his biometrics and temporarily unlock it when needed for biometric authentication. All biometric authentication against any such locked biometric records shall fail with a ‘No’ answer with an appropriate response code," the UIDAI said in its Draft Aadhaar (Authentication and Offline Verification) Regulations, 2021, which is intended to replace the Aadhaar (Authentication) Regulations, 2016.
In the case of a locked Aadhaar, the UIDAI will allow the resident to authenticate using a virtual ID or other means. These proposals were put up in the draft by the UIDAI on May 20 for public consultation.
The ANCS is described as an "encrypted Aadhaar number generated for an Aadhaar number by the authority for completion of an authentication transaction. ANCS Token shall be valid for a short period of time as prescribed" by the UIDAI. There was no further explanation of whether ANCS would be a new system or a capability built on top of the existing UIDAI authentication mechanisms.
A big focus, as suggested by the title of the new regulation, is the offline verification of Aadhaar. ‘Offline verification’, according to the draft, is the process of verifying the identity of the Aadhaar number holder without authentication, through offline methods specified by the UIDAI.
These include quickresponse code verification, Aadhaar paperless offline eknow-your-customer verification, e-aadhaar verification, offline paper-based verification, and other types of offline verification introduced by the UIDAI from time to time.
Salman Waris, partner head of TMT and IP Practice at Delhi-based Techlegis Advocates & Solicitors, called the draft a positive step, but cautioned against more inequalities similar to the ones the draft tried to fix.