Insta
UIDAI Allows Facial Recognition As Additional Means Of Aadhaar Authentication
An Alibaba employee demonstrates ‘Smile to Pay’ that uses Facial Recognition to authorise payments (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) today ( 15 January) said that it has allowed facial recognition as an additional method to authenticate a users' Aadhaar which can then be used in combination with the existing fingerprint or iris scan, reports PTI. It is said to enable easier authentication for individuals who currently face issues with the existing biometric authentication methods.
Facial recognition will be available in a “fusion mode” that will work only with one of the existing authentication methods from 1 July, an official release said.
“This facility is going to help in inclusive authentication of those who are not able to biometrically authenticate due to their worn out fingerprints, old age or hard work conditions,” the UIDAI said.
Currently, the Aadhaar system has three methods of authentication – fingerprint, iris scan or a one-time password (OTP). Facial recognition will be provided only when other methods have failed.
This move comes right after the UIDAI announced the biggest overhaul of the Aadhaar system when it allowed individuals to create and use a virtual ID to avoid sharing their unique identity numbers for authentication.
From March Aadhaar holders will have the option of generating a 16-digit virtual identity mapped to their Aadhaar number which can be used for authenticating their identity. It will be mandatory for all service providers to accept the virtual ID from June.
The UIDAI has issued around 119 crore biometric identifiers so far.
Saurabh Kumar, Additional Private Secretary to the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology tweeted out, saying that the new facial recognition system will be among the largest in the world to be tried out en masse.
Support Swarajya's 50 Ground Reports Project & Sponsor A Story
Every general election Swarajya does a 50 ground reports project.
Aimed only at serious readers and those who appreciate the nuances of political undercurrents, the project provides a sense of India's electoral landscape. As you know, these reports are produced after considerable investment of travel, time and effort on the ground.
This time too we've kicked off the project in style and have covered over 30 constituencies already. If you're someone who appreciates such work and have enjoyed our coverage please consider sponsoring a ground report for just Rs 2999 to Rs 19,999 - it goes a long way in helping us produce more quality reportage.
You can also back this project by becoming a subscriber for as little as Rs 999 - so do click on this links and choose a plan that suits you and back us.
Click below to contribute.
Latest
