The use of DigiYatra app is increasing and the concerns about misuse of facial recognition and other data are also growing.
The use of DigiYatra app has started at about two dozen airports in the country. With its help, passengers can easily check in at airports without showing any documents. So far, 55 lakh people have downloaded this app and three crore people have used it for travel. Earlier, concerns related to the privacy of passengers were raised regarding its use, but now it has come to light that the Ministry of Information and Technology itself has raised questions on it. A news has come on the basis of information sought under the Right to Information Act, in which it has been said that the Ministry of Information and Technology has said that facial recognition technology can be misused by private companies and additional measures need to be taken to protect people from this. However, the Ministry of Civil Aviation says that DigiYatra app should be made a de facto gateway for passenger check-in. That is, one ministry is calling its use a security threat, while the other ministry is talking about making it mandatory for every passenger at every airport.
The question is that when this app has been made optional and while launching it it was said that it is up to the passengers whether they choose it or not, then why are more and more passengers being forced to use it? Before making it mandatory, the government should give complete information about it to the citizens. It should be told that the DigiYatra app belongs to a private company DigiYatra Foundation, which has six shareholders. The five shareholders are Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kochi airports, which are in private hands. These five have 73 percent stake, which is equally divided. The Airport Authority of the Government of India has 27 percent stake. In this way, it is almost completely a private enterprise, in whose hands the biometric data of millions and crores of citizens is going.
Most of the passengers using it do not know that their facial recognition is being done. Secondly, it is said that the data of the passengers is not stored. But at the same time, it is also said in the privacy terms that if needed, the data of the passengers can be shared with government agencies. Think, if the data is not stored, then how is it being said to share it? Keep in mind that in no country in the world has any private company been given the right to collect the biometric data of passengers at a sensitive place like an airport. That is why the government should remove the security concerns related to it as soon as possible and till then should not even think about making its use mandatory.