Passenger Raises Privacy Concern Over Digi Yatra Enrolment

Context: At the Airports, the security personnel are enrolling passengers into Digi Yatra without their consent, by collecting the facial biometrics during check in. 

Digi Yatra Initiative Faces Privacy Backlash

• Infringement of Privacy: Air travelers are reporting on social media the flagrant infringement of their privacy at airports, through the Digi Yatra initiative being aggressively promoted by the Union government.
• Enrollment: By August 10, 2023, Digi Yatra has been used by 34,60,454 passengers. By the same date, the Digi Yatra mobile application user base was 1.29 million.

What is Digi Yatra?

• Under Digi Yatra initiative, passengers have to scan their boarding passes and faces at the first entry point, following which a single biometric face token is created that allows them to complete the rest of the journey with just a face scan at the remaining check-points. 
• Key Pillars: It has 4 key pillars namely: 
  •  Connected Passengers, Connected Airports, Connected Flying and Connected Systems. 
• Target Audience: This caters to all Passengers whether Indian citizens (With or without Digi Yatra ID) or foreign nationals. 
• Nature of the Scheme: It is a voluntary Scheme. 
• Implementing Authority: DigiYatra Foundation, under  the Ministry of Civil Aviation. 
• Funding: The funding for Digi Yatra comes from the airports and not the government.

Issue

• Data Privacy: Users complain about lack of trust in the ability to securely maintain privacy data such as facial data because of: 
  • Instances of world’s largest data breaches in Aadhar Data.
  • Policy provides exemptions for airports to share data with government agencies.
  • Ineffective Privacy laws, as the latest laws are yet to be notified. 

Significance

• Improve operational efficiency by allowing faster processing of passengers and letting airlines track delayed passengers
• Enhance security by ensuring that there is no intentional exchange of boarding passes among passengers or boarding of the wrong aircraft.

Must Read: RCS UDAN: Transforming Air Connectivity

News Source: The Hindu

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