Co-WIN App Registration: Aadhaar Card Details Not Mandatory on Vaccine Portal, Says Govt

06-02-2021

Registration on the Co-WIN portal does not require a user to submit Aadhaar card details, Union Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey has informed the Lok Saabha. Providing details about the Co-WIN portal, which has been created along with the CoWin mobile app to streamline the COVID-19 vaccination drive in India, he said it has been developed by the Ministry of Health, government of India with the support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), India Office. On whether Aadhaar is mandatory for registering on the Co-WIN application, Choubey, in a written reply, said: "No, Aadhaar is not mandatory for registration on Co-WIN portal." He said that ? 58.90 lakh has been incurred on Co-WIN, as on February 1 this year. On whether any privacy impact assessments were carried out to develop the application, Choubey said: "Yes, privacy impact assessments were carried out for Co-WIN portal. For data safety, data is encrypted using a highly secure key, no unauthorised access to database on AWS server is allowed and restricted access to relational database service (to decrease the risk of malicious activities)." The Co-WIN application follows the privacy policy as stated in the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), he said. The Co-WIN application comes with five different modules, namely - Administrator module, Registration module, Vaccination module, Beneficiary Acknowledgement module, and Report module - to ensure smooth tracking and registration for COVID-19 vaccine in the country. The mobile app is also an upgraded version of the eVIN (Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network) and will be available to download for free via the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The app may also launch on Jio phones that run on KaiOS. Citizens who are not frontline health workers will be able to register for the vaccine via the 'Registration Module'. Currently, the app is being used as a back-end software during COVID-19 vaccination drive.