Masked Aadhaar Card: Mask your 'Aadhaar' to avoid fraud, know what it is and how to get it?

In today's time, Aadhaar has become an important document. An Aadhaar card is required for opening a bank account, school college admission, purchasing property, getting a driver's license and PAN card, and availing the benefits of various government schemes. With the increase in the use of Aadhaar, incidents of fraud related to it have also started increasing. To curb this fraud, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) launched Masked Aadhaar. This reduces the risk of your details being stolen. Also, it is emerging as a secure option. Let us know what is Mask Aadhar Card.

What is masked Aadhaar?
Masked Aadhaar is a feature introduced by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to enhance privacy and reduce the risk of Aadhaar information. In a masked Aadhaar, the first 8 digits of the Aadhaar number are hidden, while only the last 4 digits are visible. While important details like name, photograph, and QR code are visible.

Where can you use it?
According to UIDAI guidelines, only those institutions that are licensed can keep your Aadhar card details and card. That means unlicensed institutions cannot collect your Aadhaar. Therefore, whenever you go to a place that does not have a license, you can use Masked Aadhaar. You can easily download it from the official website of UIDAI.

How to download
1. First of all myaadhaar.uidai.gov.in. Go to the website.

2. Enter your Aadhaar number or enrollment ID, fill in the captcha, and click on 'Send OTP'. After this select Download Aadhaar from the Services section.

3. Do you want a masked Aadhaar? Select the option. You will find this option under Review your Demographics Data.

4. After this click on Download. Masked Aadhaar will be downloaded in PDF format.

5. You also need a password to open this Aadhar card. For this you will have to enter the password. The password is – The first four letters of your name (in Aadhaar) have to be entered in capital letters and the year of your birth in YYYY. For example, if your name is Kumkum and your year of birth is 2003, then your password will be KUMK2003.