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.
About Digi Yatra Foundation
- It is a not-for-profit company founded to implement the Digital Yatra Central Ecosystem whose shareholders comprise of:
- Airport Authority of India (AAI),
- Cochin International Airport (CIAL),
- Bangalore International Airport (BIAL),
- Delhi International Airport Ltd. (DIAL),
- Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (HIAL)
- Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL)
- Objective: Rollout of “Digi Yatra” system with a digital “ID” backed by a strong verifiable government issued identity like AADHAAR, passport & others.
About Facial Recognition Technology
- Facial recognition is a category of biometric software that maps an individual’s facial features mathematically and stores the data as a faceprint.
- The software uses deep learning algorithms to compare a live capture or digital image to the stored faceprint in order to verify an individual’s identity.
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News Source: The Hindu
January 6, 2024