Aadhaar: Face authentication from July 1
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is all set to make face authentication available alongside iris or fingerprint scan as means of verifying Aadhaar users from July 1.
The UIDAI, which is incharge of the 12-digit identifier Aadhaar, in January had announced that it would introduce face authentication feature to help those who run into problems in biometric authentication due to old age, hard work or worn-out fingerprints. It had said face authentication would be allowed only in fusion mode meaning it would be permitted along with either fingerprint or iris or OTP to verify the details of Aadhaar holders.
In a presentation to the Supreme Court last week UIDAI Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ajay Bhushan Pandey had emphasised the robustness of the Aadhaar encryption system saying breaking it might take “more than the age of the universe for the fastest computer on earth”.
“Face authentication shall be available in fusion mode along with one more authentication factor like fingerprint/iris/OTP from July 1, 2018,” Pandey had said in a presentation titled 1 billion +.
Aadhaar is being used for identity authentication across banks, telecom companies, public distribution system, and income tax, among others, and the extent of its use can well be gauged from the fact that an average of 40 million authentications are being done on a daily basis. Even in his presentation, the UIDAI CEO had pointed out that 17 billion Aadhaar authentications and 4.65 billion e-KYC (knowyour-customer) transactions have been performed so far.
Seeking to allay concerns over the government’s ambitious Aadhaar scheme, Pandey had said the UIDAI did not collect purpose, location or details of transaction.
Pandey began his presentation before the five-judge Constitution Bench on Thursday and is scheduled to resume it on March 27. The bench is hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar.