UIDAI - New Recognition System - Coming Soon

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Monday announced one more security feature -- face- recognition-based authentication -- for Aadhaar users. The new feature will be launched by July 1, 2018. “UIDAI introduces yet another landmark technology for authentication – Face Authentication. #AadhaarFaceAuth will help all elderly or other facing problems with fingerprint authentication.

Service to be launched by July 1, 2018,” Ajay Bhushan Pandey, CEO UIDAI said in a tweet. Last week, the UIDAI introduced a virtual identification for the ID holders so that the actual Aadhaar number need not be shared to authenticate identity. It also placed restrictions on the storage of the Aadhaar number within various databases.

“To provide inclusive authentication, face photo can also be leveraged to verify the identity of a Aadhaar number holder. While Aadhaar Authentication API had the technical provision of sending photo of the face, this option is currently not enabled within CIDR,” said the circular. CIDR (Central Identities Data Repository) refers to the government agency that stores and manages data for the country’s Aadhaar project. The agency is regulated by UIDAI.

According to UIDAI, the face authentication provides additional options for AUAs (Authentication User Agencies). “Face Authentication shall be allowed ONLY in fusion mode along with one more authentication factor. This means Face Authentication must be combined with either fingerprint or iris or OTP to be able to successfully authentication an Aadhaar number.” “UIDAI provides the fingerprint and iris biometric authentication at select AUAs, similarly Face Authentication shall also be allowed on need basis.” The agency also said that it will work with biometric device providers to integrate face modality into the certified registered devices and may also provide standalone Registered Device (RD) service as required by the ecosystem.