Uber, India-based ride-hailing service Ola, and Airbnb are considering implementing Aadhaar authentication for their service providers, reports BuzzFeed.
Administrated by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Aadhaar is, of course, the world’s most ambitious biometric ID program, enabling various government and private sector organizations in India to use biometric data to confirm the identities of citizens. Uber and Ola are reportedly considering using the program to identify their drivers and to collect demographic data, while Airbnb may use Aadhaar to confirm the identities of hosts on its accommodations sharing platform, and is reportedly already trialing the system with a select number of hosts in the country.
The companies’ deliberations follow the UIDAI’s invitation last year to global tech companies to implement Aadhaar in their digital services. One company that has enthusiastically taken up the offer is Microsoft, which recently introduced Aadhaar authentication to its Skype Lite app in the country.
While BuzzFeed’s report has prompted some security and privacy concerns, Ola and Uber’s integrations of Aadhaar could add some extra security to their services after both companies have seen incidents in which drivers undertook criminal activities against passengers; though for Uber, at least, an embrace of Aadhaar could undercut the company’s vociferous resistance to calls from lawmakers in the US to use biometric background checks on drivers.
Source: BuzzFeed News
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July 21, 2017 – by Alex Perala
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