Aadhaar Services: Lock and unlock your biometrics; Know how to do it online

Aadhaar Services: Biometric details like fingerprints, iris scans and photograph can be locked and unlocked online.

Aadhaar Services: Aadhaar card holders can lock and unlock their biometrics. Here is how. (Pradeep Gaur/Mint)

Aadhaar Services: An Aadhaar card which contains an Aadhaar number, your personal details like name, address, biometric details, etc. is one of the most important identification documents issued by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). People need to provide their biometric details while enrolling for Aadhaar. The biometric information includes fingerprints, iris scans and facial photograph. However, do you know that these biometric details can be locked and unlocked? Yes, you can do so by visiting the official UIDAI website.

Before we discuss how you can lock or unlock your biometrics, you need to know that an Aadhaar card consists of a 12-digit random number known as Aadhaar number and any individual, irrespective of age and gender, who is a resident of India, may voluntarily enrol to obtain an Aadhaar number. Person willing to enrol for the Aadhaar has to provide minimal demographic and biometric information during the enrolment process which is totally free of cost.

UIDAI has informed that any resident with valid Aadhaar can lock/unlock their biometric details. "Biometric Locking/Unlocking is a service that allows an Aadhaar holder to lock and temporarily unlock their biometrics. This facility aims to strengthen privacy and confidentiality of Resident's Biometrics Data," it said.

After locking biometrics if a UID is used for invoking any of the Authentication services using a biometric modality (Fingerprint/Iris) a specific error code '330' indicating biometrics are locked will be shown.

Locked biometrics ensures the Aadhaar holder will not be able to use their biometrics (fingerprints/iris) for authentication. Using lock/unlock biometric service users can lock fingerprint and iris data in their Aadhaar.

As per the information provided by UIDAI, once a resident enables the Biometric Locking system his/her biometric remains locked till the Aadhaar holder chooses to unlock it (which is temporary) or disable the locking system. Also, a registered mobile number is essential to avail this service.

It can also be noted that an individual needs to enrol for Aadhaar only once and after de-duplication only one Aadhaar shall be generated, as the uniqueness is achieved through the process of demographic and biometric de-duplication.

How to lock and unlock Aadhaar biometrics?

Time	Tools	Supplies
10 Minutes	Smartphone Laptop Desktop	Updated browser Internet

Step 1: Visit the official website of UIDAI or click on the link- https://uidai.gov.in/.

Step 2: Go to Aadhaar Lock/Unlock Service mentioned under Aadhaar Services.

Step 3: Select lock/unlock biometrics.

Step 4: You can also click on the direct link here lock/unlock biometrics- https://resident.uidai.gov.in/bio-lock.