Aadhar card holders: Beware your biometrical details may be hacked
Posted on: 27/Dec/2016 10:53:21 AM
Everyone is aware that Aadhaar number associated with each citizen of India will allow them to benefit by a better management and delivery of services, mostly government services and schemes. An Aadhaar account holds all the vital information of your being, which means it has your address, your date of birth, contact number, along with biometric information stored through 10 fingerprint scans and retina scans.
Since all this is related to government there is nothing to worry but at the same time, there is also a warning that you shouldn`t share your Aadhaar number with anyone. Biometric information is never shared by the government but Telcos like Reliance Jio have started collecting fingerprints. Now the government has launched an Aadhaar Payment app, as the name suggests this app is connected to your Aadhaar account. And your Aadhaar account is connected to your bank account. So each time you go shopping you can pay using your fingerprint to make a payment.
Above the surface it may appear to be a harmless practice, but if criminals mind can hack POS machines we don`t have any reason to doubt they can`t hack these biometric machines as well.
In order to avoid your biometric details being hacked, you can follow these steps:
Lock your biometric data. Your demographic details like address, age and gender will still be accessible when needed. To lock your biometric data, visit this page resident.uidai.net.in/biometric-lock
It will ask you to enter your 12 digit Aadhaar number, a captcha and a One Time Password (OTP) that you will receive on your registered number. On the next page, you can lock your biometric information. If you wish to unlock the information go to the same page, follow the same process and on the last page click on `Unlock`.
Try to not to give a photocopy of the Aadhaar card to anyone, in physical or digital form. Avoid sharing your Aadhaar number with anyone. Remember, this number has all your information.
If there is no other option but to produce a photocopy of your Aadhaar card it is best to write the purpose and self-attest it.
