NEW DELHI: Citizens can keep their Aadhar numbers confidential. According to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), a “Virtual ID” (VID) and limited “Know Your Customer” (KYC) service will now help Aadhaar card holders to protect their privacy.

A UIDAI notification said: “The VID, a fungible number mapped to the Aadhaar number, helps card holders to avoid sharing their 12-digit biometric code.” VID will be a temporary and revocable 16-digit, randomly-generated number, which will be used for authentication. No one can derive the Aadhar number from the VID.

Any agency with whom the card holder shares the VID will find only limited details like name, address and photograph.

The VID can be generated by the card holder only. The UIDAI says it will provide various options to the holders to generate, retrieve, and replace the VID.

In short, no one will have to share his/her Aadhar number with anyone for verification purposes. The Virtual ID will end the need.

A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) study, meanwhile, found that Aadhar has provided cyber criminals and foreign enemies a single target to potentially cripple Indian businesses and administration in ways that were inconceivable a few years ago.

“For the government, the economic benefits will be far fewer than what has been thought till date. The best-case scenario is that it will allow de-duplication and will facilitate a one-time readjustment in the cost of expenditure of the government,” it said.

Also on Wednesday, the Supreme Court asked whether people who do not have Aadhaar cards are non-existent for the government of India.

During the hearing of a case seeking proper night shelter facilities for homeless people, the Chief Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh government, who had been summoned by the Court, told a bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur that people must have some identity proof if they want to use night shelters and they are usually asked to show Aadhaar cards.