Over 2.5 crore Aadhaar numbers of deceased persons have been deactivated to prevent identity fraud, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Jitin Prasada told the Parliament on Wednesday.
Aadhaar is the world’s largest biometric identity system with approximately 134 crores live Aadhaar holders.
“As part of a nationwide clean-up effort to maintain the continued accuracy and integrity of the Aadhaar database, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has deactivated more than 2.5 crore Aadhaar numbers of deceased persons till date,” said Prasada.
“In case of the death of a person, it is essential that his/her Aadhaar number is deactivated to prevent potential identity fraud, or unauthorized usage of such Aadhaar number for availing welfare benefits,” he added.
The State / UT mentioned in the address of an Aadhaar number holder in the Aadhaar database may vary from the State / UT where death was registered.
Further, the Minister also informed of several measures taken to reduce the risk of identity fraud and ensure leak-proof delivery of benefits in the country.
The biometric lock/unlock feature enables an Aadhaar number holder to “lock” his biometrics, preventing any unauthorised authentication attempts.
Deployment of face authentication with a ‘liveness detection feature’ can help prevent spoofing and ensure the physical presence of the beneficiary during transactions.
Promotion of Aadhaar Secure QR Code, Aadhaar paperless offline e-KYC, e-Aadhaar, and Aadhaar verifiable credentials for offline identity verification.
The UIDAI also does not share core biometric information of Aadhaar number holders in any manner. It ensures mandatory use of Aadhaar data vaults by all requesting entities to help store Aadhaar numbers in an encrypted format.
Other measures include database sanitisation, regular de-duplication, and deactivation of Aadhaar numbers belonging to deceased persons. Updation of demographic details of an Aadhaar number holder is allowed only as per the documents listed by UIDAI.
The UIDAI has also launched a new Aadhaar app, which facilitates the sharing of verified credentials by Aadhaar number holders with the Offline Verification Seeking Entities (OVSE) securely and seamlessly.
