Facial Recognition for Aadhaar: Another Layer of Security

In today’s world of data security and in order to provide better and stronger layer of security to the citizens authenticating their identity using Aadhaar, the UIDA, Unique Identification Authority of India, has welcomingly introduced facial authentication feature along with other features like fingerprints and iris recognition. This security feature will be used in conjugation with existing means of authentication like fingerprints, iris recognition or OTP (one-time-password). Planned to be implemented by July of this year i.e. 2018, this added security feature of facial recognition is expected to enhance the security of confidential information of the millions of citizens.

In a press notification released by UIDAI on Monday, UIDAI informed that at the time of enrolment of Aadhaar the photo of the applicant is also captured. To provide a thorough authentication, this photo can be leveraged efficiently to verify the identification of a Aadhaar Card number holder. This face authentication will be provided as an “additional choice” for those casesfacing difficulty with their fingerprints/iris recognition at the time of authentication. As this face photo is already available with UIDA1 maintained database there is no need to capture any kind of new data. And since Camera is now extensively available on various laptops and mobile phones,this facial recognitionwill easily be feasible for any authentication agencies without requiring any additional hardware.

This basically means that you need not go to an authorised Aadhaar centre again for further authentication of facial recognition details. The UIDAI will simply be tapping into its saved database for activating this feature. Additionally, this will also work with bio-metric device providers integrating face modality into certified registered devices by UIDAI and also providing standalone registered device service.

To enhance the security of information UIDAI has already added extra firewall with virtual IDs and limited KYC (Know Your Customer). Also as an additional security layer UIDAI has already placed a ‘bio-metric lock’ protecting against any external intrusions or breaches.