'Opt out' of Aadhaar option gets UIDAI legs

In what could turn out to be a significant development, the Aadhaar issuing body, UIDAI, has proposed the inclusion of an 'opt out' clause to the Aadhaar Act that will enable people to withdraw their biometric details from the servers of the authority.

A draft Cabinet note has already been prepared by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to include this amendment, according to a senior government official. Once implemented, the opt-out provision can be availed by all and their Aadhaar number and details including demographic and biometrics will be deleted from the servers of the UIDAI.

However, if a person opts out of the Aadhaar scheme, he/she won't be able to avail many government schemes and subsidies where Aadhaar linkage is still mandatory.

The draft note has already been vetted by the law ministry.

A window of a specified time frame will be decided, under which people can withdraw their 16-digit number if they want, the official said. "It will exist just as an option since currently, there is no such provision available. The amendments will be duly brought in after the approval of the Cabinet."

The development comes months after the Supreme Court on September 26 struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act, which allowed private entities to use the Aadhaar number to verify new users.

Aadhaar remains a valid document for customer verification like other government-authorised documents including passport, PAN card, driving license and voter ID. However, while getting a new connection, no biometrics authentication (real time authentication) of subscriber details by UIDAI will be done.

Though eKYC through Aadhaar has completely stopped, the confusion over data earlier collected through this method still prevails. Telecom players have reverted to the previous system of verification through physical documents. The department of telecommunications and UIDAI, meanwhile, had plans to bring out a digital process to issue new SIM cards through a mobile app that will be fully compliant of the Supreme Court order.

The Cabinet note is expected to come up in the next 1-2 months.

Erasing All Biometrics

• Once implemented, the opt-out provision can be availed by all and their Aadhaar number and details, including biometrics will be deleted from servers. 
• However, if a person opts out, he/she won’t be able to avail government schemes and subsidies where Aadhaar linkage is still mandatory.  
• Draft note has already been vetted by law ministry; will come up for approval in Cabinet in the next 2 months