Private entities can use Aadhaar ID verification again

Among its big benefits could be innovations that allow age gating on the internet without any privacy loss

- RAHUL MATTHAN

As the Aadhaar case was reaching the Supreme Court, the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) began to restrict private access to its authentication infrastructure. It now seems that hard stand is beginning to soften. A new amendment to Aadhaar authentication rules could finally allow us to leverage our identity infrastructure to better unlock greater efficiencies in digital services.

When Reliance Jio launched telecom services in 2016, it added a staggering 170 million new customers in the first 100 days of its operations. This, frequently referred to as the fastest in the history of the global telecom industry, was only possible because Jio was able to use Aadhaar eKYC to complete its statutory customer acquisition formalities in a fraction of the time that other telecom companies took. At the height of its acquisition drive, it added a new customer every few seconds.

At the time, private companies could use Aadhaar for a range of different purposes. Apart from customer acquisition, various startups had designed their services around the many features offered by India's identity infrastructure. For instance, Yolo Mobility, an e-bike rental business, triggered an Aadhaar authentication request to instantly check whether someone trying to unlock a vehicle was a registered user. This gave insurers the assurance that these e-bikes could not be stolen using fake IDs, in turn justifying a sharp reduction in premiums.