Recently news sites and papers published articles on the Aadhaar platform being opened up for developing applications. The Aadhaar project is in the process of providing a Unique Identifier for every citizen in India. An access to such a database could result in a number of consumer service applications being created.

“People who have received these numbers will look for the benefits of the number. This is where the app ecosystem will come in. Different partners can build apps and provide benefits across different sectors like healthcare and banking,” Nilekani said.

With mobile penetration in India growing every day, applications that can run on low cost phones or applications based on SMS is what companies should first target at. It’s equally essential that the data from the Aadhaar database is protected from unscrupulous access.

The 1.0 API documentation is now available on the UIDAI website.

The documentation appears to be a work in progress as the URL (http://uidai.gov.in/UID_PDF/Working_Papers/AADHAAR_Authentication_API_1.0.pdf) suggests.

An excerpt from the documentation should lay to rest whether demographic or biometric data of the person can be compromised during online access

AADHAAR authentication is the process wherein AADHAAR Number, along with other attributes, including biometrics, are submitted online to the CIDR for its verification on the basis of information or data or documents available with it. AADHAAR authentication service only responds with a “yes/no” and no personal identity information is returned as part of the response.

UIDAI will provide a reference implementation of authentication client library (UID_LIB_DEFAULT) for packaging and encrypting authentication data block in Java programming language. UIDAI may also provide other language implementations as necessary. Developers will be able to download these libraries along with UIDAI public key, all digitally signed by UIDAI, from UIDAI developer web site for use within their application. Developers will be encouraged to develop other programming language bindings and submit to UIDAI.

For further details on the API documentation Check link: Aadhaar 1.0 Authentication API Documentation