Technology & Science
UIDAI Unveils Privacy-Centric Aadhaar App, Begins Phase-Out of mAadhaar
On 28 Jan 2026, UIDAI released the full replacement for the mAadhaar app, offering at-home updates and offline, selective-share verification, marking the first mandatory migration of India’s 1.3 billion digital IDs.
Focusing Facts
- Launched on Data Privacy Day (28 Jan 2026) by Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the app lets users update mobile number and address without visiting an enrolment centre.
- About 20 firms—including Samsung, Google, Pine Labs—were certified as Offline Verification Seeking Entities to accept QR-signed credentials without querying UIDAI servers.
- UIDAI signalled legacy mAadhaar support will be withdrawn, urging 1.3 billion Aadhaar holders to switch; up to five family profiles can be managed in one account.
Context
India’s move echoes the 1936 roll-out of U.S. Social Security numbers—initially paper, later digitised in the 1980s—when a single identifier began underpinning both public and private services, raising parallel privacy debates. Since Aadhaar’s 2009 launch, the system has drifted from welfare targeting toward ubiquitous KYC, stoking concerns after high-profile leaks (2017 Tribune sting, 2018 state portals). The new app tries to reverse that narrative through data-minimisation, decentralised QR checks and user-side biometric locks—tools reminiscent of Europe’s post-GDPR “selective disclosure” credentials. If it succeeds, India could normalise zero-knowledge-style proofs for everyday transactions, nudging the world’s largest biometric database toward a consent-driven model. If it fails, it may entrench a surveillance architecture for the next century. Either way, the shift signals that digital identity battles—once about access—are now about who controls the data exhaust in a platformised economy that will outlast today’s phones and perhaps even Aadhaar itself.
Perspectives
Government-aligned and state news outlets
e.g., ANI, Analytics Insight — Portray the new Aadhaar app as a milestone that showcases India’s global digital-identity leadership, stressing voluntary use, built-in privacy safeguards, and national pride in covering 125 crore citizens. The celebratory framing mirrors official talking points and downplays past controversies over data breaches or surveillance that critics often raise. ( Asian News International (ANI) , Analytics Insight )
Business and financial media
e.g., MoneyControl, The Economic Times — Highlight the app’s role in enabling consent-based, minimal-data verification for private-sector services and DPDP Act compliance, framing it as good for ease of doing business and new commercial use cases like age-gating. By emphasising regulatory alignment and market opportunities, these outlets gloss over lingering civil-liberties concerns and focus on the app’s benefits for companies and investors.
Local social-impact reporting
e.g., The New Indian Express — Uses a human-interest lens to show how lack of Aadhaar can block access to basic health services for marginalised nomadic communities, presenting the document (and by extension the app) as a gateway to essential welfare. The narrative celebrates officials’ swift intervention yet skirts deeper systemic flaws that kept such citizens excluded for years and may persist despite new technology.