Aadhaar gets Virtual ID for security: All you need to know & how it works

On Monday, The Unique Identification Authority of India launched Virtual ID for Aadhaar which provides a more secure way of protecting identity by masking the Aadhaar number and generating a 16 digit randomised VID that can be shared with service providers instead.

The UIDAI’s official handle tweeted about the launch and said that while residents can generate their VIDs right away, service providers are expected to start accepting it in place of Aadhaar “soon.” However, the new VIDs generated can be used right away for updating registered address on the Aadhaar e-portal, the authority said.

The virtual ID system was announced in January this year amidst rising security concerns about Aadhaar as people questioned the secrecy of their data which is being shared with service providers such as banks, insurance companies and telecom operators by way of Aadhaar linking. It was then that the authority announced the virtual ID system claiming that it will provide the required anonymity by replacing actual Aadhaar numbers with a random number which can be deactivated and re-generated as per the need.

Even as the authority had given March 1 as the date for launch, it was silent for the last four weeks about the impending launch, as Business Standard had reported earlier. Even after Monday’s launch, however, it remains to be seen how much time the authority will take to make sure all Aadhaar enabled providers to start accepting virtual IDs too. The deadline for the same, according to the January 10 circular, is June 1 after which the authority warns that the authentication facility could be revoked.

The circular also explained the rationale behind launching the Virtual ID in the environment of heightened privacy concerns.

“While it is important to ensure that Aadhaar number holders can use their identity information to avail many products and services, the collection and storage of Aadhaar numbers by various entities has heightened privacy concerns,” the circular said. “Aadhaar number being the permanent ID for life, there is need to provide mechanism to ensure its continued use by the Aadhaar number holder while optimally protecting the collection and storage of Aadhaar number itself in many databases.”

While the circular called for the protection of Aadhaar number in many databases, it was expected by many that the UIDAI will allow multiple virtual IDs to be generated with each UID so that no two service operators get the same ID, in its current form, however, only one VID can be generated for an Aadhaar number at a time.

The launch of VID comes in the midst of the ongoing Supreme Court case on the constitutional validity of the entire UID project. Last week, the UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey gave a presentation to the five judge bench led by the Chief Justice of India and said that Virtual ID will solve many security problems related to Aadhaar.

However, the bench questioned the ease of use of virtual ID and asked how will illiterate people in the rural parts of the country generate virtual ID off the internet each time they need to link their Aadhaar number to a service. The bench had also asked Pandey to submit a note to the court on how the Virtual ID will function.

Experts, however, have also expressed a fair bit of cynicism regarding the current form of Virtual ID which doesn’t allow multiple IDs to be generated. Subhashis Banerjee, professor of computer science at IIT Delhi and a member of UIDAI’s security review committee said that the limitation of being able to generate only one virtual ID per day doesn’t “make much sense”.

“I don't understand the reason behind this restriction. So if you have to give it to one telecom company and one wallet company, then you have to wait for a day to generate a new VID,” he said. “If the VID has to work, it has to be implemented well and service providers will take time to come on board and right now, clear directions on implementation and specifications are also missing.”