Let me paint a picture we have all been in: You need to submit a PDF for a bank form, insurance claim, or that one government portal that still runs on Internet Explorer. The file is 6 MB. The portal says “Max 500 KB”. You panic, Google “reduce PDF size online”, and land on the first shiny website that pops up (iLovePDF, SmallPDF, whatever-PDF). Two clicks later, your Aadhaar, PAN, passport, and a selfie of you holding the Aadhaar are happily flying to some server in who-knows-where.
Congratulations, your entire identity is now chilling with strangers faster than you can say “OTP sent”.
We laugh about it. “Arey yaar, everyone does it.” Yes, and everyone also shares WhatsApp forwards about Bill Gates giving away money. Same energy.
In an age where your Aadhaar number + DOB gets sold for ₹50 on Telegram groups, we are surprisingly chill about uploading the motherlode to random websites just to save 30 seconds. And whose fault is it?
A little bit ours, mostly the system’s.
The government and banks have made it so painful to submit a document legally that the illegal feels like mercy. Want to compress a PDF without uploading? Good luck finding an offline tool that actually works on your phone.
Here’s the joke: We treat Aadhaar like it’s a visiting card.
Hotel receptionist: “Sir, ID proof?”
Us: “Here, take my entire existence in 300 dpi.”
They scan it, save it on a computer that probably runs Windows 7 and has a password of “admin123”, and we sleep peacefully knowing the motel now has better KYC on us than LIC.
And the cherry on top? Every year, the same bank, the same mutual fund, the same insurance company asks for fresh KYC. Bro, you already have my Aadhaar, PAN, face scan, fingerprint, blood group (okay, maybe not), but nothing has changed except my weight. Why am I doing KYC more often than I visit a dentist?
Insurance companies boast about AI that detects fraud in milliseconds, but can’t figure out that “Rahul Sharma living at Flat 404, Milroc” in 2023 is probably the same guy in 2025. Meanwhile, the fraudsters are editing PDFs in Canva and laughing.
We have built the world’s most ambitious biometric ID system, linked it to everything from rations to mutual funds, and then made the process of using it legally so frustrating that people happily commit mini data-suicide every day.
What we can do right now.
Do’s:
Always use a masked Aadhaar when sharing your Aadhaar number. It takes just a couple of seconds on the UIDAI website or app, and it hides your real number.
Store and share official documents through DigiLocker. Yes, the app feels slow and looks like it’s stuck in 2012, but your documents stay safely on government servers.
When a hotel or anyone asks for ID proof, just show the original. Let them note down the number if needed. You’re not required to give a photocopy or scan unless it’s an official police check.
If a bank or company asks for fresh KYC and nothing in your details has changed, politely ask them to pull the information from DigiLocker or the Aadhaar system. Many will do it.
Don’ts:
Never upload your Aadhaar, PAN, or passport to any online PDF tools, no matter how convenient they seem.
Never send your Aadhaar or other KYC documents over WhatsApp, not even to agents or people you trust.
Never agree to unnecessary repeated KYC. If your address, name, or details are the same, question why they need fresh documents every year.
We Indians invented zero, yoga, and butter chicken. Surely we can invent a system where submitting a PDF doesn’t feel like selling a kidney on the dark web. Till then, stay safe, stay offline, and remember, your Aadhaar is not a pamphlet. Stop distributing it like one.
Sorry, there was a YouTube error.
