Aadhaar Clean-up: Millions of Deceased Accounts Deactivated

In a significant move to curb identity fraud, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has deactivated the Aadhaar numbers of over 2.5 crore deceased individuals. This initiative seeks to uphold the integrity of the Aadhaar system, which is currently the globe's largest biometric identification network, serving approximately 134 crore active holders.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Jitin Prasada, explained to Lok Sabha that deactivation post-death is imperative to hinder potential identity fraud and unauthorized benefit claims. Numerous protective measures are in place, including a biometric lock feature that enables users to guard against unauthorized access by locking their biometric data.

Further advancements like 'Face Authentication' with Liveness Detection are employed to mitigate spoofing risks by verifying the beneficiary's physical presence during transactions. Additionally, initiatives such as Aadhaar Secure QR Code and offline e-KYC are encouraged to secure identity verification.