UIDAI Informs Agencies to Treat Virtual ID or UID Token as 12-digit Biometric Number

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The format of Virtual ID and UID Tokens are different if you try to compare with 12 digit Aadhaar Number, but UIDAI has recently said that Virtual ID and UID Tokens should be considered and accepted as Aadhaar to verify identity and to satisfy regulatory compliance.

UIDAI Informs Agencies to Treat Virtual ID or UID Token as 12-digit Biometric Number

Virtual ID system and UID token have been introduced to tighten up the security system and also to maintain privacy. Both these Virtual ID system and UID token are different forms of Aadhaar and are meant to be used by authentication agencies which are classified as ‘local AUAs (authentication user agencies)’.

According to Gazette Notification the entities which are classified as local Authentication User Agencies or local AUAs have been guided to make changes into their system to make use of Virtual ID (VID) and UID token as alternative to Aadhaar Number.

UIDAI had rolled out VID feature in its Aadhaar Portal on 1st July, any Aadhaar holder can visit the portal and generate their VID and use the same temporary VID for various authentication purposes instead of sharing their real 12 digit Aadhaar Number.

VID contains 16 digits of temporary number which is randomly generated on entering 12 digit Aadhaar Number. You can share this generated VID everywhere where it is asked to produce as well as for authentication and eKYC Services. If you want to know the complete procedure on how to generate VID then you can follow our recent article What is Aadhaar Virtual ID (VID) Generator and How to Generate It?

By introduction of this two new features which are VID and UID Tokens, the concerns such as collection of personal and demographic details of residents will be reduced.

UIDAI has categorized all authentication agencies registered into two types local and global. Banks has been categorized as global authentication user agency and telecom companies as local user agency. However eSign Providers, National Housing Bank Regulated Finance Companies, Non-Life Insurance Companies and NBFC (Non-Banking Financial Companies) have also been categorized as local authentication user agency.

As per UIDAI, all Global authentication user agency will be allowed to access residents complete KYC with Aadhaar Number. And the local authentication user agency will be provided limited access to KYC details of resident.

2 thoughts on “UIDAI Informs Agencies to Treat Virtual ID or UID Token as 12-digit Biometric Number”

  1. What if AADHAR AUTHENTICATION pending for over 4 months ? What is remedy especially for super senior citizens?

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