UIDAI's 'mAadhaar app': Carry your Aadhaar in your pocket

Mumbai: While the country continues to debate over Aadhaar and privacy, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has rolled out the ‘mAadhaar’ app to literally carry around our Aadhaars in our pockets.

The app developed by UIDAI is currently only available for Android users. According to its official description, the app aims to provide an interface to Aadhaar number holders to carry their demographic information, which is, name, date of birth, gender and address along with photograph by linking their Aadhaar number to their smart phones.

The app requires every user to link their phone numbers with their Aadhaar accounts. In case one’s mobile number is not registered with Aadhaar,  one must visit the nearest Enrolment Centre/Mobile Update End Point.

This comes days after UIDAI enabled Aadhaar holders to obtain soft copies of their Aadhaar online. Some of the key features of this app are:

1. Mobile Aadhaar – A hassle free and convenient way to carry Aadhaar number with demographic details anytime, anywhere.

2. Put a lock on your details with the biometric lock– This is one of the best things about this app. Our Aadhaar numbers contain vital information about us, which when leaked can put our identities at risk. To secure this data, the app provides for biometric authentication. Once you enable the Biometric Locking system, your biometric data remains locked till you choose to either unlock it (which is temporary) or disable the locking system.

3. TOTP generation – The app also provides Time-based One-Time Password, which is an automatically generated temporary password that can be used instead of SMS based OTP.

4. Update your Aadhaar profile – According to the official description, mAadhaar shows updated version of your Aadhaar profile after successful completion of update request.

5. Share QR code and eKYC data by Aadhaar Number holder – This provision allows you to share QR code and password protected eKYC data to retrieve accurate demographic informationinstead of entering data manually.

Aadhaar has been mandated for acquiring the benefit of various schemes like Midday Meal, MNREGA, filing ITR returns, etc. A five-judge Constitution bench is meanwhile hearing a batch of petitions challenging the validity of the Aadhaar scheme and its invasion into every Indian's privacy.