The most important step in guarding the Aadhaar biometric data is locking the biometrics. This protects all personal information from possible risks and abuse, thereby enhancing privacy and data integrity.
The potential misuse of Aadhaar’s biometric data poses great threats, such as identity theft and fraudulent financial transactions, among others. Recent reports about trading personal information like Aadhaar numbers on the dark web has further emphasized on the need for people to protect their biometric information.
Protecting Aadhaar Biometric Data
Locking their biometrics enables individuals to prevent unauthorized access or misuse of services facilitated by the Aadhaar card or any other biometric identification system until needed for valid reasons.
Benefits of Locking the Aadhaar Biometrics
Add an additional security measure by locking all forms of fingerprint recognition technology, iris scan systems, and facial recognition technologies used within cards issued under this scheme. This step ensures that unauthorized individuals cannot easily access users’ private details without their consent or knowledge. Once locked, these systems become ineffective and prevent misuse, thereby safeguarding linked bank accounts from any form of attack. However, while still in a locked state, they cannot also perform authentication towards Aadhar unless unlocked again, though one may do verification via OTP sent to a registered mobile number even when their biodata remains sealed from the public domain.
Steps Necessary To Secure The Aadhaar Biometrics Effectively
- Open the UIDAI website or download the mAadhaar app on your mobile phone.
- Login to your Aadhar account using the OTP that will be sent to you after entering your aadhar number.
- Now go to “My AADHAAR” section and find “Lock/Unlock Biometrics.”
- Confirm Your Identity Again By Entering A One-Time Password, And Then Click On The Lock Biometrics Option located Under the Settings Menu to Protect Your AADHAR Card Fingerprints, Iris Scan Data, Etc., from unauthorized access or misuse.
- After completing these steps successfully, a confirmation message will pop up, indicating that you have securely locked your biometric details.
Locking your Aadhaar card fingerprint significantly reduces the risk of tampering and potential detection by others. If you require unlocking this biometric data at any time in the future, simply follow the above-mentioned steps again, but instead of clicking on Lock, choose the Unlock Biometrics Button.
