Widening the scope of sharing Aadhaar information with government entities, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has proposed amendments — called the Aadhaar (Sharing of Information) (First Amendment) Regulations, 2023 on May 8, 2023 — to the Aadhaar (Sharing of Information) Regulations, 2016. The UIDAI has invited public feedback on the amendments at suggestion.legal@uidai.net.in within 30 days. The Aadhaar (Sharing of Information) Regulations, 2016, issued in September 2016, lays out the rules and restrictions for sharing Aadhaar information of the individuals by requesting entities and other entities or agencies, which are in possession of Aadhaar data of individuals. The UIDAI has proposed changes to the rules and restrictions that govern entities, including a requesting entity — having Aadhaar information of an individual — when it comes to using, storing, sharing and retaining of such information for varied purposes. What’s a requesting entity? Under the Aadhaar Act, a requesting entity is “an agency or a person that submits Aadhaar number and demographic information or biometric information, of an individual to the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) for authentication”. Through the latest notification, the UIDAI aims to expand the scope of select regulations in the original 2016 Regulations. Why it matters: The proposed amendments enable greater access to Aadhaar data of individuals collected by the entities to the authorities (amendments to Regulation 4 and 6) and also dilute the scope of consent-based data sharing (amendment to Regulation 5) with authorities for reasons not explicitly informed to the Aadhaar holder. It is…
