UIDAI chairman stresses Aadhaar safety, says only limited personal data held

The UIDAI chief also underlined the need to maintain the accuracy of Aadhaar’s database and improve user experience.

The chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has reaffirmed that Aadhaar remains a secure and trusted digital identity platform, built on limited data and strong privacy safeguards.

Speaking at Global Fintech Festival (GFF) in Mumbai, the UIDAI chief Bhuvnesh Kumar said Aadhaar continues to be the backbone of India’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) and will remain focused on maintaining citizen trust and data accuracy.

“UIDAI has been the cornerstone of the trust of the identity, and that has what led to proliferation of so many other things,” he said.

“The Aadhaar is playing the foundation role in the DPI and will continue to do so in the future also.”

The chairman emphasised that UIDAI holds only a small set of personal information and does not store data belonging to other organisations.

“We already have very limited personal data. In fact, most of the entities want more data which lies with other organisations,” he said.

“Perhaps they need to work with those entities who are owners of that data and link the identity from the UIDAI with the relevant records from the other owners.”

He said UIDAI’s priority is to protect citizens’ privacy and prevent misuse of data. “We want to ensure that the concerns of the citizens are taken care of by us, and there’s no misuse of any kind of personal data that we have,” he said.

The UIDAI chief also underlined the need to maintain the accuracy of Aadhaar’s database and improve user experience.

“Our team is working day and night right from the tech centre to the headquarters to the regional offices to make the experience smoother.”

Calling startups

Encouraging innovation, he invited developers and startups to test new authentication use cases in UIDAI’s sandbox environment, where they can build solutions that comply with privacy and security norms.

“It is for the innovators to come out with new use cases and push entities like UIDAI also to come out with solutions which comply with the law and the regulations,” he said. “We are already working, looking at various kinds of risks, giving playground to the people in our sandbox environment.”

To strengthen its systems further, UIDAI has launched a “grand challenge” to improve face authentication technology and make it more reliable.

He also urged citizens to explore the Aadhaar app, adding that UIDAI plans to enable key updates such as address and mobile number changes through face authentication in the coming months.

“We should be able to provide these services from the comforts of your homes,” he said, adding that UIDAI aims to make most Aadhaar services available on the app for the convenience of users.

The chairman further said UIDAI is working on verified credentials that can be used globally through interoperable standards.

“All these use cases can be handled through the sharing of verified credentials, which is based on international standards,” he said.

“They can not only be used here because they are based on interoperable international standards they can be used worldwide.”