Online data breaches have become increasingly common, and questions continue to be raised by sceptics about the misuse of the biometric data collected by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the agency that administers Aadhaar. Several people do not know that they can “lock” their biometrics online.

This will ensure that no application will be able to use your biometrics stored with UIDAI for authentication. If later you require an application to be able to authenticate you, there is also the option of temporarily unlocking your biometrics.



Go to the UIDAI website - https://uidai.gov.in/





Under the heading, “Aadhaar Services”, click on “Lock/Unlock Biometrics”





It will open a new window - https://resident.uidai.gov.in/biometric-lock





Enter your Aadhaar Number in the box provided:

Once you enter your Aadhaar number, you will receive a one-time password (OTP) on your registered mobile number:





Enter the security code provided:





Following this step, your biometrics- fingerprints and iris scans will get locked.





If a service or application attempts to authenticate your biometrics after you’ve locked them, an error code “330” will get generated.





If you wish to allow validation of your biometrics, you can repeat the process and temporarily unlock the biometrics.



neha.alawadhi@nw18.com