Have any of you used “Digilocker”, the service provided by the central govt for verification of documents and what’s been your experience ? Are there any concerns regarding safety/privacy of the app ?
2 Likes
Not really, like any of the eGov efforts by GoI, I see this with the lens of a skeptic.
Unless I get to see the tech-stack behind this in a transparent manner, I can’t trust that platform with my identity papers.
It’s the whole convenience vs privacy discussion again when it comes to DigiLocker’s featureset. The convenience here comes less from the tech and more from a GoI whitelisting of the service by policy and accepting docs uploaded there as legitimate proof.
4 Likes
Hi Alyosha, I haven’t used the app myself, but here are details that might help you form an opinion on the service.
Recently, some concerns were raised in Court over the absence of a nomination facility in case of death of a user. These documents would then not be accessible to the user’s kin, and would automatically pass on to the government. For more details, you could check this article out: Plea challenges IT rules on digilocker: HC seeks Centre stand.
Additionally, Debabrata Nayak, the project director for DigiLock, has said that it is essentially mandatory to link one’s Aadhaar to the account for the user to request a verified digital document from a department or the other way around. Without Aadhar, you’d be merely saving your own files on a cloud like One Drive or Dropbox. Linking crucial biometric data with little transparency inherently brings in some privacy concerns in its policy, which has not been updated since 2017. Check out these links for details: The DigiLocker was supposed to cut down paperwork but less than 0.1% of Indians are using it, Privacy Policy.
Regarding its usability - it might not be as beneficial as one would imagine considering a lot of essential IDs such as your passport and voter ID have not yet been added to the list of documents accessible through DigilLocker.
Hope this helps!
3 Likes
I had tried to use Digilocker when it came out years ago but it kinda failed. My name is written differently in different documents like (PAN, License, Passport etc) and Digilocker simply failed the name check back then so I uninstalled it.
Never tried to use it again.
2 Likes
Hi. I mainly use to it for my DL and not for verification. So far I haven’t seen an issue. There was some push back in traffic cops accepting it as official when it initially came out. But recently I haven’t seen it. Regarding privacy issue, I am skeptic. So I have decided keep my use only for my DL and will most likely use it for nothing else.
1 Like
Read this
1 Like
Planning to write this in detail analysing the design / architecture of Digital Locker ecosystem. Hopefully will have something by April
1 Like