Digi Yatra users' data is secure; info only kept on each person's mobile device

The Digi Yatra Foundation stated that, despite ongoing worries about user data privacy, Digi Yatra does not save personally identifiable information on its passengers and that the personal data of Indian users is safe and secure. Digi Yatra, which is based on facial recognition technology (FRT), enables frictionless and smooth passenger transit at airport checkpoints.

Emphasising that Digi Yatra is built on the concept of Self Sovereign Identity, the foundation said the Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem (DYCE) never stores any of the ID credentials data, which has Personally Identifiable Information (PIl) anywhere in any central repository.

"The Digi Yatra blockchain only has Hash/Key values to check the Integrity of the data," the foundation, which is the nodal agency for the app, said.

Earlier this week, there were reports raising concerns about the privacy of data shared with Digi Yatra in connection with a former vendor Dataevolve, which has come under investigation. The foundation's CEO Suresh Khadakbhavi said Dataevolve has been completely removed from the Digi Yatra ecosystem.

While noting that the personal data of 3.3 million Indian users and the Digi Yatra app are absolutely safe, the statement said the foundation or any service provider cannot access user data since all the PIl is only stored on the user's mobile device in the Digi Yatra app, accessible only to the user.

The old data would remain on the user's mobile device, and once the app is uninstalled or deleted, the credentials data and the travel history also get deleted by default, it added.

Explaining the process, the foundation said that when the user shares the ID credentials and the boarding pass to the origin airport (verifier) and travels through the airport, the data received by the airport is purged/ deleted from airport systems within 24 hours of flight departure.

Digi Yatra has the mandatory CERT-In audit certificate, which is required for the DYCE backbone, mobile apps, and airport verifiers as per the civil aviation ministry policies.

According to the foundation, the latest audit was conducted in January, which clearly reconfirmed that Digi Yatra does not store PIl.