New Delhi: The UIDAI has launched a new Aadhaar app that can be used for age verification under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act without sharing any additional data, a senior government official said on Wednesday.
Speaking at the launch of the app, the Ministry of Electronics and IT Secretary S Krishnan said the government has amended Swik Rules or the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Rules, 2020 to enable private entities to provide service by using Aadhaar authentication on secure basis.
“We frequently contend within the ambit of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act is age verification and how age verification will be done. I think we are in a position where, with the Aadhaar app, there is actually a way that age gating can seamlessly apply without oversharing the data,” Krishnan said.
He later said there are firms that are developing solutions that have been put up for demonstration at the Aadhaar event.
Age gating will help online platforms, including social media platforms, online games, and e-commerce, to verify age of users for providing services to them.
The age verification will also help online platforms in cutting down access to age inappropriate content or products for children.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), has launched a new app that can be downloaded from app stores on mobile phones. This will enable people and entities like hotels, cinema halls, online firms to verify an individual digitally for providing services.
The app aims to discourage use of paper copies of Aadhaar that are generally used by several entities mainly hotels, government offices for verifying an individual.
UIDAI CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar said besides easing access to Aadhaar services like address and mobile number update, the app will enable digital verification for entities and share with them information that are required for providing service.
“Mobile number update can be done now on the Aadhaar app without going to a centre. The facility of address update is already available but it has been built into this also...,” Kumar said.