Aadhaar: India's Digital Shadow ⚠️🤯
Tech
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India is expanding its Aadhaar system, the world’s largest digital identity program, into more aspects of daily life. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) recently launched a new Aadhaar app alongside an offline verification framework, allowing users to share limited information with services like hotels and workplaces. Simultaneously, the existing mAadhaar app continues to operate. Install numbers for Aadhaar-related apps surged, reaching nearly 9 million monthly by December. The Ahmedabad City Crime Branch has integrated Aadhaar-based verification with PATHIK, a guest-monitoring platform. UIDAI’s expansion introduces new data privacy considerations, particularly given ongoing developments in India’s data protection framework. The system currently handles approximately 2.5 billion authentication transactions each month, having issued over 1.4 billion identity numbers.
Aadhaar Expansion: A New Layer of Identity
The Indian government, through the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), is aggressively expanding the reach of Aadhaar, its world’s largest digital identity system, into everyday private life via a new app and offline verification support. This strategic shift introduces significant questions regarding security, consent, and the broader utilization of the massive database.
The Rise of the Aadhaar App
Launched in late January 2025, the new Aadhaar app quickly gained traction, surpassing the older mAadhaar app in monthly downloads. Appfigures data reveals a dramatic surge, with combined monthly installs rising from nearly 2 million in October to nearly 9 million in December. This rapid adoption reflects a deliberate strategy to integrate Aadhaar into a wider range of services and platforms.
Offline Verification: A Shift in Infrastructure
The core of the expansion lies in the introduction of offline verification. This framework allows individuals to prove their identity without real-time checks against the central Aadhaar database. This shift isn’t about replacing the existing infrastructure, but rather extending it, moving Aadhaar from a backend verification tool into a more visible and everyday interface. The Ahmedabad City Crime Branch’s integration with PATHIK exemplifies this, utilizing Aadhaar-based offline verification for guest monitoring at hotels.
Expanding Ecosystems: Wallets and Beyond
Beyond the core app, UIDAI is actively promoting Aadhaar’s use in mobile wallets. Upcoming integrations with Google Wallet and discussions regarding Apple Wallet alongside existing Samsung Wallet support signal a broader ecosystem. The app’s positioning as a “digital visiting card” for meetings and networking, facilitated through QR codes, further demonstrates this expansion.
Scale and Volume: An Existing Giant
Aadhaar already operates at an enormous scale, boasting over 1.4 billion issued identity numbers and processing approximately 2.5 billion authentication transactions monthly. Alongside tens of billions of “know your customer” checks since its launch, the system’s sheer volume underscores its central role in the Indian economy.
Regulatory Adjustments and Concerns
Recent regulatory changes, easing restrictions and establishing a new framework, have facilitated greater private-sector access to Aadhaar verification without querying the central database. However, this shift has been met with strong opposition from civil liberties and digital rights groups, who argue that these changes do not address the system’s deeper structural risks.
Risk Mitigation and Oversight
Campaigners associated with Rethink Aadhaar highlight the risks of reintroducing private-sector use of Aadhaar, warning against “Aadhaar creep” and the potential for illusory consent. Concerns persist regarding data protection, security lapses, and the disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations, particularly given unresolved implementation failures and past compliance shortcomings identified by India’s Comptroller and Auditor General.
Looking Ahead: A Watchful Eye
As India doubles down on Aadhaar, governments and tech companies are closely observing the system’s potential, attracted by the promise of population-scale identity checks. The Indian IT ministry and UIDAI CEO have not responded to requests for comments, leaving many questions unanswered regarding the future of this transformative, and potentially fraught, digital identity system.
This article is AI-synthesized from public sources and may not reflect original reporting.