DigiYatra promises seamless, paperless air travel for millions of Indians. Yet, its rollout has been plagued by reports of coerced consent, privacy concerns, and a fundamental trust deficit. Is this the future of India's Digital Public Infrastructure?
This session presents a critical case study of DigiYatra, examining the deep chasm between its "privacy-by-design" claims, the consent conundrum and the reality on the ground. We will analyze the system's architecture, its controversial "opt-in" process, and the broader geopolitical context of state-led digital identity projects.
The core of this talk will be a counter-proposal: how could a FOSS-based DigiYatra have been designed differently? We will explore how open standards, auditable code, and community governance could have built a system where consent is real, privacy is verifiable, and public trust is earned, not demanded.
I will go through topic considering following flow:
Introduction: The Promise and the Peril: The official promise of DigiYatra: a "seamless, contact-less, hassle-free and paperless" travel experience to the conflicting lived reality for many passengers
Deconstructing "Consent"
Deconstructing "Privacy"
The FOSS Alternative: A Verifiable Architecture
Lessons learned from the DigiYatra dilemma are not isolated but are critically important for the design of all future Digital Public Infrastructure projects in India.
India to build digital public goods that are truly accountable to the public they claim to serve, FOSS is not an option but a necessity.
The session would help to de-construct the narrative around consent and privacy promised by many systems like digi-yatra and truly understand the core of the system.
It will prompt one to think beyond this and think along the lines of technology policy for the concerned topic.