Amazon, Paytm, other e-commerce firms now demanding Aadhaar for services

Mumbai: With Aadhaar becoming increasingly central to our daily lives, e-commerce companies have now started making the 12-digit unique identity number mandatory for availing certain services.

Amazon recently asked customers to upload their Aadhaar numbers to track lost packages, reported The Economic Times. Reasoning it is a necessary way to authenticate the identity of customers, an Amazon India spokesperson said “We ask customers to submit a government--certified ID. We understand Aadhaar is the most widely held. So it is our preferred one."

However, this is not mandatory and if a customer is unable to produce his or her Aadhaar, the process is continued based on other details shared by the customer.

Bengaluru’s car rental platform Zoomcar has declared Aadhaar mandatory as proof of identity for making bookings. “Aadhaar has the best API integration, the latest documents are getting connected with bank accounts. If you have an Aadhaar card, you have the KYC (know your customer) sorted," a Zoomcar spokesperson told ET.

Meanwhile, Paytm has also asked its customers to link Aadhaar with their mobile wallet. Cab-hailing services Uber and Ola are also finding ways to integrate customers’ Aadhaar details on the platforms.

Aadhaar is now mandatory for a host of government services and subsidies. It is also mandatory for operability of phone connections and bank accounts.