{"id":3090308,"date":"2026-02-09T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=3090308"},"modified":"2026-02-10T09:24:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:24:23","slug":"india-makes-aadhaar-more-ubiquitous-but-critics-say-privacy-concerns-remain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/02\/09\/india-makes-aadhaar-more-ubiquitous-but-critics-say-privacy-concerns-remain\/","title":{"rendered":"India makes Aadhaar more ubiquitous, but critics say security and privacy concerns remain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

India is pushing Aadhaar, the world\u2019s largest digital identity system, deeper into everyday private life through a new app and offline verification support, a move that raises new questions about security, consent, and the broader use of the massive database.<\/p>\n\n

Announced<\/a> in late January by the Indian government-backed Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the changes introduce a new Aadhaar app alongside an offline verification framework that allows individuals to prove their identity without real-time checks against the central Aadhaar database.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

The app allows users to share a limited amount of information, such as confirming that they are over a certain age rather than revealing their full date of birth, with a range of services, like hotels and housing societies to workplaces, platforms, and payment devices, while the existing mAadhaar app continues to operate in parallel for now.<\/p>\n\n

Alongside the new app, UIDAI is also expanding Aadhaar\u2019s footprint in mobile wallets, with upcoming integration with Google Wallet<\/a> and discussions underway to enable similar functionality in Apple Wallet, in addition to existing support on Samsung Wallet.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

\"The
The new Aadhaar app with selective data sharing.<\/span>Image Credits:<\/strong>Google Play<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The Indian authority is also promoting the app\u2019s use in policing and hospitality. The Ahmedabad City Crime Branch has become the first police unit in India to integrate Aadhaar-based offline verification with PATHIK, a guest-monitoring platform launched by the police department, aimed at hotels and guest accommodations to record visitors’ information.<\/p>\n\n

UIDAI has also positioned the new Aadhaar app as a digital visiting card<\/a> for meetings and networking, allowing users to share selected personal details via a QR code.<\/p>\n\n

Officials at the launch in New Delhi said these latest efforts are part of a broader effort to replace photocopies and manual ID checks with consent-based, offline verification. The approach, they argued, is meant to give users more control over which specific identity information they want to share, while enabling verification at scale without having to query Aadhaar\u2019s central database.<\/p>\n

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Early uptake on top of massive scale<\/h2>\n\n

While UIDAI formally launched the new Aadhaar app last month, it had been in testing since earlier in 2025. Estimates from Appfigures show that the app, which appeared in app stores toward the end of 2025, quickly overtook the older mAadhaar app in monthly downloads. <\/p>\n\n

Combined monthly installs of Aadhaar-related apps rose from close to 2 million in October to nearly 9 million in December.<\/p>\n\n

The new app is being layered onto an identity system that already operates at enormous scale considering India’s population. Figures published on UIDAI\u2019s public dashboard<\/a> show that Aadhaar has issued more than 1.4 billion identity numbers and handles roughly 2.5 billion authentication transactions each month, alongside tens of billions of electronic “know your customer” checks since its launch.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

The shift toward offline verification does not replace this infrastructure so much as extends it, moving Aadhaar from a largely back-end verification tool into a more visible and everyday interface.<\/p>\n\n

At the app\u2019s launch, UIDAI officials said the move toward offline verification was intended to address long-standing risks associated with physical photocopies and screenshots of Aadhaar documents<\/a>, which have often been collected, stored, and circulated with little oversight.<\/p>\n\n

The expansion comes at a time of regulatory changes, easing restrictions<\/a>, and a new framework<\/a> (PDF), with UIDAI now allowing some public and private organizations to verify Aadhaar credentials without querying the central database.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n