India expands Aadhaar digital identity system with new app and offline verification

India is expanding the use of Aadhaar, its massive digital identity system, into more aspects of daily private life through a new app and offline verification capabilities, allowing individuals to prove their identity without real-time checks against the central database, as reported by TechCrunch.

The new Aadhaar app allows users to share limited personal information, such as age verification, with various services including hotels, workplaces, and payment platforms. It also integrates with digital wallets like Google Wallet and is planned for Apple Wallet. The Ahmedabad City Crime Branch has already integrated Aadhaar-based offline verification for monitoring guests in hotels. UIDAI promotes the app as a digital visiting card, enabling users to share selected details via QR code. These changes aim to replace physical photocopies and manual ID checks with consent-based, offline verification, giving users more control over shared data and enabling verification without querying the central database. The system has already issued over 1.4 billion identity numbers and handles billions of authentication transactions monthly.

The expansion of Aadhaar into offline and private-sector settings raises concerns among civil liberties groups regarding security, consent, and data protection, especially as India's data privacy framework is still developing. Critics argue that the rollout precedes the establishment of a Data Protection Board and lacks sufficient independent review and public consultation.

Source: TechCrunch