Digi Yatra: No Centralized Storage, Data Retained on Passengers’ Devices, the Government Says Rajya Sabha

On Monday, the Civil Aviation Ministry informed the Rajya Sabha that a passenger’s personal information is saved in the traveler’s mobile wallet, with no centralized storage.

In response to a written question about data privacy concerns in Digi Yatra, Minister of State for Civil Aviation General VK Singh (Retd) stated that the Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem (DYCE) is designed and built with privacy in mind, and there is no central storage of passenger Personally Identifiable Information (PII) data.

“The Digi Yatra processes are subjected to audits and certification by CERT-In impaneled agencies to ensure adherence to data privacy and security standards,” stated the Minister of Information and Broadcasting.

The Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem is maintained by the Digi Yatra Foundation, a Not-For-Profit corporation established under Section 8 of the Companies Act of 2013. It hence is not subject to the Right to Information (RTI) Act, Singh stated.

The DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) has published Digi Yatra Guidelines through Aeronautical Information Circular (AIC) No. 09/2022, dated April 18, 2022. The Ministry of Civil Aviation informed the House that the Digi Yatra guidelines call for a decentralized mobile wallet-based identity management platform.

“Passenger personal information is saved in the traveler’s mobile wallet. The data is encrypted and shared with the departing airport, and it is wiped from the system 24 hours after the airplane departs. This overcomes data protection concerns in the deployment of Digi Yatra,” he noted.

It is vital to remember that Digi Yatra is a biometric boarding system that uses face recognition technology to give airport travelers a seamless and hassle-free experience.

All passengers’ data is encrypted and saved in their smartphone wallets. It is only shared between the traveler and the airport of origin, where the passenger’s DigiYatra ID must be authenticated.

DigiYatra is a paperless, contactless travel experience for flight travelers. It employs face recognition technology to authenticate passengers’ identities at checkpoints including check-in, security, and boarding gates. DigiYatra also lets travelers keep their IDs and travel papers on a mobile ID storage platform. 

On December 1, 2022, the Ministry of Civil Aviation inaugurated DigiYatra at three airports: New Delhi, Varanasi, and Bengaluru. As of August 11, 2023, DigiYatra was also available in four additional airports: Vijayawada, Pune, Hyderabad, and Kolkata. 

DigiYatra intends to give aviation travelers a smooth, frictionless, and risk-free flight experience. The DigiYatra technique employs a single facial biometric token to digitally certify travel, identification, health, and other air travel-related data.