India expands Aadhaar’s authentication for businesses, raising privacy concerns ncvrs.com

India has facilitated Aadhaar authentication services, a digital identity control framework related to the biometrics of more than 1.4 billion people, including businesses such as e-commerce, travel, hospitality and health care, The control system is used to authenticate their customers for authentication. The update raised the privacy concerns as the Újdelhi has not yet defined the protective lords

Friday the Department of Information Technology in India introduced Aadhaar authentication for good governance (social well -being, innovation, knowledge) modifications, 2025, amending the legislation introduced in 2020 as a result of the judgment of the Supreme Court limited Access to private organizations looking for Aadhaar data. The new amendment arrives almost two years after the Indian government started the public consultationThe answers to which have not yet been published.

The purpose of the update is to “improve the scope and usefulness of Aadhaar authentication” by “allowing Aadhaar to improve service provision” and “allowing both government and non-governmental organizations to enjoy Aadhaar authentication service In order to provide various services of public interest ”the Ministry of Information Technology mentioned in the press release.

Compared to their previous version, the modified rules excluded the subtitle, which allowed Aadhaar to authenticate to prevent leaks of public funds. This expands the scope of the individual ID-based inspection provided by the Indian Government’s Unique Identification Authority (Uidai) and expands the authentication service to various public and private sectors. Previously, banking and telecommunications service providers predominantly used Aadhaar authentication on board new customers and to check existing consumers.

Aadhaar’s authentication reached 129.93 billion in January, compared to $ 109.13 billion last year, one Uidai’s website. The National IT Center, the National Health Agency, the Indian State Bank, the Bank of Baroda and the Punjab National Bank were among the most popular organizations using Aadhaar-based authentication to check their users this month.

Under the new rules, organizations seeking to authorize Aadhaar authentication must “apply the details of the planned requirements, the Ministry of Ministry or the State Government or the State Government” examined by “Uidai and Meity (the Ministry of Information). “This approves these applications based on Uidai’s recommendation,” the government said.

“What are the criteria for Meity and Uidai to take into account the evaluation of such applications, to make it lighter and more transparent to eliminate the abuse, which is indicated by the Supreme Court while discussing in Section 57 of Aadhaar,” said Kamesh Shekar , digital government leadership in the mindset of the new Delhi-based tech policy in dialogue.

Section 57 of the AAdhaar Act of 2016, which was stopped by the Supreme Court in 2018, allowed private organizations to use Aadhaar numbers to determine the identity of individuals. In 2019, the Indian government amended the Aadhaar law to allow voluntary authentication on the basis of Aadhaar. However, this amendment has been challenged and is currently underway in the Supreme Court.

Prasanna S, the lawyer of the Supreme Court, who was among the lawyers for privacy and challenged the Aadhaar Act, said that attempts to amend the amendment to Section 57 were attempted to “re-establish”.

“The licensing system existed earlier in accordance with the 2020 rules. But now, with the expansion of access, the concern of the system is strengthened and has become more, ”he told Techcrunch.

Sidharth Deb, a new Delhi -based advisory firm, associated with Quantum Hub’s public policy, said that the extension of Aadhaar authentication is at risk of exclusion.

“Once you start connecting your identification documentation or ID card to access digital services, there is always a risk of exclusion,” he said. “We really need to start thinking about how to determine the volunteer so that citizens have as many autonomies as possible to have as frustrated with digital services.”

Techcrunch has taken the Indian Ministry of Information Technology of key concerns raised by political experts and measures to prevent Aadhaar’s abuse and updates when the ministry responds.