Multiple ways available to establish veracity of Aadhaar: UIDAI

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Wednesday said that the veracity or genuineness of ‘Aadhaar’ can be "easily established" both in an online and offline mode, and outlined multiple ways to do so.

UIDAI noted that the issue of how to verify the genuineness of an Aadhaar card is often faced by organisations when the biometric ID is presented to them as a proof of identity and listed out multiple ways to verify the credentials.

For online mode, the age band, gender, state and last 3 digits of the mobile of an Aadhaar holder can be verified by visiting myaadhaar.uidai.gov.in/verifyAadhaar by feeding the Aadhaar number, an official release said.

For offline mode, it explained, every Aadhaar card /Aadhaar letter/eAadhaar has a Secure QR code printed on it, which contains demographic details as well as photographs of the person.

"Even if the Aadhaar card is tampered with by photoshopping another person’s photograph, the information in the QR code is secure and tamper-proof as it is digitally signed by UIDAI," the release said.

The QR code can be read by `Aadhaar QR scanner' app available on Play Store and App Store.

"UIDAI recommends verifying ‘Aadhaar’ as an additional check for residents, for instance, at the time of hiring an employee, domestic worker, driver or renting out to a tenant," it said.

The general public can also verify another person’s Aadhaar as a part of the background check at any point in time, it pointed out.