IT Ministry Asks For UIDAI’s Opinion on Linking Of Aadhaar With Social Media Accounts

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has written to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) seeking its opinion on linking of social media accounts to the Aadhaar card numbers, reports Economic Times.

UIDAI is the body which issues the 12-digit bio-metric identification number to the Indian citizens. UIDAI’s view has been sought on the matter by the ministry, which is yet to formulate a final opinion. This comes after the Supreme Court last month asked the Union government's view on the matter.

“The ministry has asked for UIDAI’s opinion on the matter,” a senior government official was quoted in the report as saying.

However, under the present structure of law, linking of social media accounts with Aadhaar numbers is difficult given the unique identity number can only be linked to government schemes and subsidies which are funded from the Consolidated Fund of India.

“Aadhaar can’t be linked for anything beyond the Consolidated Fund of India, that’s the law,” the official said.

It should be noted though that recently the law was amended to allow banking institutions and telecom companies to use Aadhaar-based bio-metric identification to carry out Know Your Customer (KYC) process, with due consent from the customers.