Everyone wants to protect his or her identification from people who are irrelevant. But this is not easy if you are directly providing your identity to various people. Even though you give your identity card to trustable people or organizations, still there are staff inside these organizations that can sell your data to outside parties. In India, Aadhar centers were also operating under private ownership, so this causes a lot of problems in data protection. Keeping in view these issues in mind, UIDAI (Unique Authority of India) has brought the concept of VID (Virtual Identity). Through VID, you can avoid giving your Aadhar number to the other party. It works similar to the Aadhar number. Unlike the Aadhar number, this is a 16 digit number and temporary in nature. It means that you can generate a new virtual ID every time you want a new id.
How to generate Aadhar Virtual ID online?
If you are an Aadhar number holder, you can generate a virtual id (VID) on the fly. Follow the steps below to generate your VID:
- Open the VID section on the UIDAI official web portal.
- Now enter your Aadhar number in the form field and enter the security or captcha code.
- You have to click the OTP button. OTP means a one time password. You will get this on your registered mobile number. The purpose is to bring privacy, security, and confidentiality of your Aadhar details.
- Now input the OTP received on the mobile phone on to the UIDAI website.
- Now click to generate Virtual ID (VID).
Aadhar VID features and Advantages
- The virtual id is a temporary number and consists of 16 digits.
- It is used as a replacement for the Aadhar number for online processing & verification.
- Agencies are not allowed to ask for the Aadhar number as VID can be used to verify the details with them.
- VID is generated in such a manner that no one can get or retrieve the Aadhar number from the vid. This is the main purpose or reason to bring vid system.
- e-KYC is the system used to verify the Aadhar number holder to verify his or her details electronically. Service providers use e-KYC to perform this task and applicant can provide VID instead of Aadhar number to verify while maintaining his or her personal details.
- Generated virtual id remains valid until the time, Aadhar user generates a new one from the UIDAI website.
- There is no hard and fast rule to give VID for e-KYC verification. It is totally dependent upon the Aadhar user to give the Aadhar number or VID. Keeping in view the wrong use of Aadhar numbers by different types of organizations and people, we strongly suggest you generate a virtual identity and never give your Aadhar number to anyone. The purpose of launching VID from the Government of India is to protect resident’s demographic details as much as it can. In this regard, it is your responsibility to fully utilize this system for better security & confidentiality.