New Delhi

In a move to protect the integrity of the world's largest biometric identity system, the government has deactivated over 2.5 crore Aadhaar numbers belonging to deceased individuals.

This massive clean-up effort, aimed at maintaining an accurate database, was confirmed by the Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Jitin Prasada, in a submission to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

The primary motivation for this purge is to close any loopholes that could enable the misuse of personal identities. According to the statement by the Ministry of Electronics & IT, the deactivation is vital because "In case of the death of a person, it is essential that his/her Aadhaar number is deactivated to prevent potential identity fraud," and it further helps to stop any "unauthorised usage of such Aadhaar number for availing welfare benefits."

With approximately 134 crore live Aadhaar holders in the country, maintaining the system's accuracy is a monumental task. The government highlighted that the location of death registration might differ from the address listed on an Aadhaar card, making synchronised deactivation efforts even more important.

This nationwide effort is part of a larger strategy to ensure that government subsidies and services reach only the living, intended beneficiaries.

Beyond simply removing old records, the Ministry detailed several technological safeguards currently in place to keep the system secure. For instance, the Biometric Lock/Unlock feature allows users to "lock" their data, which the statement notes is a major step in "preventing any unauthorised authentication attempts."

Additionally, new tools like face authentication now include a "liveness detection feature" to ensure a real person is present during a transaction and to prevent "spoofing" by those trying to bypass security.

To further strengthen security, the government has mandated that all entities requesting Aadhaar verification use "Aadhaar Data Vaults" to store Aadhaar numbers in a strictly encrypted format.

The Ministry also emphasised that UIDAI never shares citizens' core biometric information with any third party. For offline use, the system promotes secure QR codes and paperless e-KYC to keep data safe while remaining accessible.

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The release also introduced a more user-friendly way for citizens to help keep the database up to date. A new Aadhaar app has been launched that enables families to securely share verified credentials and report deaths.

This contributes to the ongoing "database sanitization" which involves "regular de-duplication and deactivation of Aadhaar numbers belonging to deceased persons" to ensure the system remains leak-proof and reliable for all Indians.