Bengaluru: Your Aadhaar card will soon get a new look, the card will be designed in a high-tech manner to provide strong protection to your personal identity.
From now on, your Aadhaar card will be safe no matter who you give it to. Because no details will be printed on it. It will not have your name, address, number, etc.” The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is set to completely overhaul the design of the Aadhaar card, sources said.
The new card will reduce the risk of misuse by service providers and increase safeguards against fraud.
The UIDAI launched a significant redesign of the Aadhaar card last November. The revision is part of a broader shift in how identities are verified and protected in the growing digital ecosystem.
The existing Aadhaar card contains a number of personal details, including your photo, name, address and a 12-digit identification number. While the card has been widely used across sectors, it has raised persistent concerns about privacy and misuse. Over time, hotels, private agencies and service providers have been regularly collecting photocopies of Aadhaar. Often without clear safeguards, this increases the risk of data leakage, identity theft and unauthorized profiling.
The proposed The redesign has made protecting personal data a top priority. Thus, by reducing the card to a bare minimum, primarily a photo and a scannable QR code are being printed. The authority is trying to ensure that sensitive information is no longer displayed openly or easily replicated.
Instead of handing over a document that reveals full identity details, individuals will rely on digital or QR-based verification. Only the information required can be obtained there and that too with consent. This puts a brake on complete information disclosure.
In stark contrast to the current card, the redesigned card will only have a photo and a QR code. All personal details like name, Aadhaar number, address, date of birth and gender will no longer be printed on its surface. This marks a significant change.
The personal details will be embedded in the QR code. It will securely store the person’s name, Aadhaar number, date of birth, address, gender and biometric verification data in an encrypted form.
Access to this data will be strictly restricted. Because the QR code is read by government-authorised scanners, UIDAI It can only be decoded through official apps or designated verification tools. As a result, unauthorized entities like hotels, event managers or offices will not be able to retrieve personal information by photocopying the card.
Aadhaar Vision 2032
Under the framework of ‘Aadhaar Vision 2032’, the department, which is undertaking a comprehensive strategic and technical review to guide the development of Aadhaar over the next decade, had in October constituted a high-level expert committee under the chairmanship of Neelkanth Mishra, the current chairman of UIDAI. The committee is bringing together leading figures from academia, industry and public administration to chart the future innovation trajectory of Aadhaar.