Your Aadhaar Card has crucial information that is linked to your financial transactions, bank details, and personal details. By following these steps, you can ensure the safety of your Aadhaar Card and biometric details.
The Aadhaar Card has evolved into a key financial instrument that is closely tied to your financial transactions, tax details, bank information and a lot more. It’s nearly impossible to perform a number of basic financial activities without an Aadhaar Card.
While on the one hand, it has become absolutely necessary to get an Aadhaar Card, on the other, concerns have been raised regarding the security of the Aadhaar database. On many occasions, people have alleged that the Aadhaar database, including the biometric details (fingerprint and iris data), is vulnerable to theft and hacking due to a poor security infrastructure. Some critics have even gone far enough to state that the Aadhaar information for a number of people can be accessed with a mere Google search.
The Government, on their part, has shot down accusations of data breach and advised individuals to exercise caution when sharing their Aadhaar details on third-party websites.
Unauthorised access to your Aadhaar data will not only unmask your Aadhaar number but also places your personal details like bank information and tax history, vulnerable to misuse. Hackers can also steal your identity by wrongfully and illegally using your biometric details.
So, it is wise to take the necessary steps to keep your Aadhaar data safe.
Keeping Aadhaar Data Secured
The Aadhaar Card comes with several safety features. Whenever you share your Aadhaar number with an institution, an OTP (One Time Password) gets sent to your registered mobile number for authentication. The OTP remains valid for 30 minutes and once used, it cannot be reused. This helps avoid unauthorised use of your Aadhaar number. But you must be careful to not share your OTP with anyone.
Recently, UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) has enhanced Aadhaar safety by granting Aadhaar holders the option to lock their biometric details. By locking your Aadhaar details, you can rest assured that your biometric details cannot be used by anybody without your permission.
You can lock your Aadhaar details by visiting the UIDAI website. It only takes a few minutes. You can also unlock your biometric details when needed for authentication. In the latter case, your details will stay accessible only for 20 minutes before automatically getting locked.
Just like your passwords and PIN, you have to keep a watchful eye when locking and unlocking your Aadhaar details.
Steps To Lock/Unlock Your Aadhaar Biometric Data
- Visit the UIDAI website (https://www.uidai.gov.in/) and under Aadhaar Services click Lock/Unlock Biometrics.
- Enter your 12-digit Aadhaar number followed by the security code and click Send OTP.
- The OTP will be sent to your registered mobile number and will be valid for 30 mins. Enter the OTP on the same page and click Login to go to the next page.
- On the next page, you will be asked to enter the security code to enable biometric locking’. Enter the code as shown and click Enable.
- Once you click Enable, your biometric data will be locked and the following page will appear.
- In case you wish to unlock your biometric details or disable the lock, then follow the same process till the third page and click Unlock or Disable after entering the security code.
By following this simple procedure, you can increase the safety of your biometric details.
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