Digi Yatra

Rahul Matthan wrote about his experience with the Digi Yatra app, the Indian government’s “biometric access system for air travel”. Privacy advocates were up in arms about the app, but that’s exactly what drove him to try it:

“I strongly believe that no matter how repugnant a technology might sound at first blush, I need to try it out myself before forming a firm opinion.”

 

The app takes a photo of you – that pic is used to identify you at the airport, so “make sure it is clear and well lit”. Then you add your identity information to the app. Or if you already have the (government issued) DigiLocker app with the Aadhar ID fed into it, just link the apps and authorize the transfer of the Aadhar info. That’s it, as far as the setup is concerned.

 

Before the trip, enter the details of your flight. Or just scan the QR code on the boarding pass. At this point, your face biometrics and the flight info are uploaded onto the airport's Biometric Boarding Processing System (BBPS). This is why people worried – your photo was there, so were your travel details. Big Brother just got yet more data about you, they fretted.

 

Matthan looks into those concerns. Remember your photo that the app took?

“That photo is never shared as is. Instead it is first converted into a digital template that extracts a set of unique data points and stores it in a specified format. These data points are what is used to identify whether the person standing before the scanner is you or not. It is impossible to use this data to generate a photograph of you and so the fact that it is being shared has very little privacy significance.”

At the checkpoints at the airport, the system compares your face against this biometric template. And within 24 hours of the departure of your flight, this data is purged from the airport systems. Put differently, all that data is only on your phone most of the time, except the 24 hour period around the travel window.

 

What does the app do for you at the airport? Here is Matthan’s experience at the horribly congested Delhi airport:

“I took one look at the long queues at the entrance and knew that if, for any reason my Digi Yatra didn't work there was no way I would make my flight. I took a deep breath and scanned my boarding pass and looked at the camera till it snapped a picture and turned green. I was through. Ten minutes later I was in my seat on the plane.”

 

All of that is why Matthan’s takeaway of the app is:

“It is an excellent implementation of the notions of privacy by design. And is extremely convenient to boot.”