Aadhaar Card: The Delhi government is in the process of establishing an Aadhaar Vault to protect essential personal information associated with Aadhaar that citizens provide for various schemes and services, officials announced on Monday. This initiative by the government’s Department of Information Technology is based on the guidelines set forth by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The National Informatics Center (NIC) has successfully conducted tests of the vault on a test server.
A senior government official stated that Aadhaar numbers are necessary for online applications related to various government schemes and services, highlighting the importance of securing them. The Aadhaar Vault offers numerous advantages, such as safeguarding sensitive identity information and preventing its misuse.
Moreover, it facilitates the secure integration of Aadhaar-linked data with e-governance services. In May, the government entered into an agreement with the Centre for Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to store data from e-District and the upcoming Unified Data Hub (UDH) within the Aadhaar vault. The e-District portal is utilized for generating documents like caste and income certificates, as well as for other online applications. In a recent meeting, IT Minister Pankaj Singh assessed the project and instructed officials to accelerate the progress.
What is Aadhaar Vault?
The Aadhaar Vault is a secure and encrypted database established by the UIDAI for government agencies and private organizations to store Aadhaar numbers and related information. It does not keep the actual Aadhaar number directly; instead, it generates a reference key. This key facilitates secure access to encrypted Aadhaar data whenever necessary. This approach ensures that the Aadhaar number is not directly stored in an organization’s database, greatly improving data security.
How does the Aadhaar Vault system function?
In 2017, UIDAI created the Aadhaar Data Vault in response to concerns about the misuse of Aadhaar data. Its goal is to prevent any data-collecting agency from storing Aadhaar data on their local systems. When an Aadhaar number is needed, the request is routed through encrypted servers. The Aadhaar number remains concealed until the request is verified with a specific encryption key. This vault aids e-governance and other applications in reducing the traces of Aadhaar data while maintaining a high level of security.