Facebook's Adhaar Card Prompt For New Users; Adhaar Linking May Follow Soon!

After mobile numbers and bank accounts, the Adhaar verification is likely to make its way to social media platforms like Facebook. It is speculated that the US- based social media giant might ask its users to link their Adhaar card to their Facebook accounts in future. Recently, the company started prompting its new users to use their real names (as mentioned in Adhaar card) while opening a Facebook account.

The 'name as per Adhaar' prompt is being tested by Facebook on its mobile site which reads, "What's your name? Using the name on your Aadhaar card makes it easier for friends to recognise you." However, the company has said that this being an optional prompt, it is not compulsory to use your name mentioned on the Adhaar card while opening a Facebook account.

In a statement issued to Gadget360 on the testing of this new feature, a Facebook spokesman said, "We want to make sure people can use the names they're known by on Facebook, and can easily connect with friends and family. This is a small test where we provide additional language when people sign up for an account to say that using the name on their Aadhaar card makes it easier for friends to recognise them. This is an optional prompt which we are testing, people are not required to enter the name on their Aadhaar card."

The move of prompting users to use their Adhaar name while opening a new account is in order to curb the number of fake accounts on Facebook that currently includes over 241 million users in India. It is to be mentioned here that this prompt is currently used for a small percentage of users and can only be seen while signing-up via Facebook's mobile site by selected users.

This is not the first of its kind move as talks of linking social media accounts to Adhaar card have already been gaining ground. In the past, Former UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani had indicated a similar scenario. He said, “UID can be an easy way for verifying one’s Twitter and Facebook account, this implies that anyone (not just celebrities) will be able to get verified accounts, with their UID credentials. It can similarly be used for other online accounts where one needs to verify his/her identity.”