How to protect your Aadhaar biometric details

As with any digital platform, the risk of data breaches is pretty high with Aadhaar as well.
Incidents like the data breach at Jharkhand or a personal experience I had, push me to be doubly sure of my Aadhaar data's safety.

One step you can take right away to ensure your Aadhaar data is not misused is lock your Aadhaar details. To know how to do that, read on.

There is a feature on the Aadhaar website by which you can lock your biometric details.
Once you have locked your Aadhaar data, nobody can carry out an Aadhaar verification using your biometric data.
To get a biometric verification done, you can unlock your data temporarily. You can also disable the lock permanently, if you so wish. (not recommended)



LOGIN

You login using your Aadhaar number and the OTP sent to your mobile number registered with Aadhaar, at the link given below.

LINK  :https://resident.uidai.gov.in/biometric-lock

LOCK YOUR BIOMETRIC DATA

Once logged in you would see the following screen, which informs you of the current status of the biometric lock - whether it's enabled or not.
When the biometric lock is disabled, that means your Aadhaar data is open for verification.

Enter the security code and click on 'ENABLE' to lock your Aadhaar biometric data.

You will get a confirmation message and now your biometric data is locked. No identity verification can be done using your biometric data and therefore it cannot be misused by anyone.

UNLOCK YOUR BIOMETRIC DATA

Once locked, even you cannot use your biometrics to verify your identity.
After some days if you require to identify yourself using the Aadhaar biometric data, you would have to unlock it first.

Unlocking works in the same way. You go to the link https://resident.uidai.gov.in/biometric-lock and log-in using your Aadhaar numebr and OTP.

Now you'll see that the site tells you that your Aadhaar biometric data is locked.

You have 2 options after filling in the displayed security code.

OPTION 1 : UNLOCK

Clicking the 'Unlock' option will unlock your biometric data for verification for a duration of 20 minutes. You can get your verification done in the 20 minutes. Afterwards, the data is locked again automatically.

OPTION 2 : DISABLE

Clicking the 'Disable' option disables the lock. Once you are done with the verification, you will have to lock it again manually, if you want it to be secure after verification.

Overall, this is a nice feature that gives you another level of security.
However, there is one scenario where this maybe become a disadvantage, and that is explained below.

Suppose you go to a business which requires Aadhaar biometric verification.
If you have locked your biometric data, you would have to first unlcok the same. And if for some reason you do not have access to the internet or your mobile (for the OTP), you  would not be able to get the verification done. So, a little planning in advance would be  required if you know you are going to need a biometric Aadhaar verification done.

Stay digitally safe!!