App has always been under our complete control, says Digi Yatra Foundation; Know what is the whole controversy

Digi Yatra Foundation on Wednesday said that the Digi Yatra app has always been under its complete control. Earlier reports had surfaced that Digi Yatra Foundation is reportedly parting ways with its former vendor DataEvolve Solutions and has offered billing account and management services for the app.

According to reports, there are concerns about (storing) data shared by passengers on Digi Yatra. Former vendor DataEvolve Solutions has come under investigation. When asked whether DataEvolve is still associated with Digi Yatra, the foundation replied in the negative.

According to the foundation, Digi Yatra has no connection with Dataevolve. Digi Yatra started on NITI Aayog's CIC infrastructure and later moved to DataEvolve, which was managed as a managed service provider. Only account billing and management was done by DataEvolve, the company said Wednesday.

Last week, Foundation CEO Suresh Khadakbhavi said that no data of passengers is stored in Digi Yatra. In an interview, he said that this happens only on (users') phones and it is under the passenger's control. Digi Yatra is based on facial recognition technology (FRT). The app provides contactless seamless movement of passengers at airports. Currently, there are about 50 lakh users of this app.

The information provided by passengers to Digi Yatra is encrypted. The passenger must go through Aadhaar-based verification in order to use this service. In addition, the self-taken photo needs to be uploaded on the Digi App. You will also need to input your information. Scan the boarding pass and send the information to the airport as the next step.

At the e-gate, the traveller must first scan their bar-coded boarding pass. The travel document will then be verified and the passenger will be identified by the facial recognition system that is installed at the e-gate. The passenger will be able to use e-gate to enter the airport once this procedure is finished. In order to board the aircraft, passengers must adhere to the standard protocol.

Earlier in January this year, Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had said that it completely depends on the wishes of the passengers. He had instructed the personnel deployed at the airports to collect data for the app only after the consent of the passengers.