In an effort to offer thorough offline verification, the UIDAI has brought in secure digitally-signed QR Code on the e-Aadhaar which will now contain photograph of the Aadhaar holder too, in addition to demographic details.
According an official source, āThe UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) recently replaced existing QR code on e-Aadhaar having residentās demographic details now with a secured digitally-signed QR Code which contains demographics along with photograph of the Aadhaar holderā.
But in order to ensure that a person is a bonafide owner of the Aadhaar card, there will be a manual check of photo with the individualās face or through use of agency specific authentication scheme.
A QR code is a form of barcode label which contains machine-readable information, while e-Aadhaar is the electronic version of Aadhaar that can be downloaded from UIDAI website. The new feature, the digitally-signed QR code, will contain photo of the Aadhaar holder in addition to existing facility of demographic details, in turn allowing various user agencies like banks to verify authenticity of Aadhaar card offline.
It is should be noted that the UIDAIās e-Aadhaar QR Code reader software has been made available on the agencyās website from 27 March 2018.