DoT, UIDAI devise mobile app with OTP to help operators instantly verify users

The Supreme Court ruling that now prohibits the use of Aadhaar for verification had left operators scratching their heads over of new mechanisms to verify mobile phone subscribers. According to a report by Live Mint, the authorities in a joint statement on Thursday have now proposed the idea of using a mobile application to allow subscriber verification with ease.The proposed mobile application will make use of a one-time password and will record a live photograph of the subscriber along with location details like the latitude, longitude and a time stamp.[caption id="attachment_5404801" align="alignnone" width="1024"]

Representational Image.[/caption]The photograph as per the joint statement by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) explains that a photo of the person’s ID such as an Aadhaar card, voter ID etc. will be captured by the system.“The SIM card agent will be authenticated through OTP (one time password) and SIM card will be issued.” the statement reads.As per the authorities, the process has been devised to make the registration experience hassle-free and digital for subscribers.The recent Supreme Court ruling on 26 September now bars private firms from accessing Aadhaar details of customers for verification purposes.The ruling prevents the private companies from accessing Aadhaar data of customers which had earlier made the subscriber verification process faster at both ends. Barring private companies from using the Aadhaar database has posed quite a problem in terms of the KYC requirements.While the current proposal does address the privacy concerns, because it does not need to access the Aadhaar database, the details about capturing the data are not crystal clear.The joint statement clearly mentioned that users who had obtained SIM cards using the Aadhaar verification will not face a disconnection.