Aadhaar project not to take facial scans at face value

Facial biometrics, say experts, have a high failure rate (of 1 in 10 people). Recognising this danger, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which has been empowered to issue unique numbers or Aadhaars to the 1.2 billion residents of the country, has decided not to use the facial scan as a de-duplication device or primary biometric verification method.

UIDAI will scan three biometric characteristics of each individual — face, fingerprints and iris (coloured part of the eye). However, facial scans will be used to detect false matches only if the other two biometric scans fail to convince authorities about the identity of a person.

“Along with the demographic details of a person, the face will only find a place in our records,” Ram Sewak Sharma, director general and mission director of UIDAI, told Business Standard.

“The Aadhaar project will use the three big biometrics of face, fingerprints and the iris, but the face will not be used for primary matching or a primary biometric. Only in exceptional cases, where the eyes are obscured or fingerprints unprintable or worn out, will the face be used,” said Mark Crego, Partner (Chief Biometrics Architect), Accenture.

Crego pointed out there could be many similar faces. There is only 30 per cent accuracy in the face as a biometric and one needs manual checking to ensure accuracy. It was because of these problems that UIDAI decided to have another biometric — iris scan. The addition of iris to finger and facial biometrics would help achieve accuracy rates beyond 95 per cent, according to the authority.

UIDAI says collecting and de-duplicating biometrics of children is a challenge because face and finger biometrics are not stable until the age of 16. The lack of de-duplication of a child’s biometrics would require that the child’s unique identification (UID) or Aadhaar be linked to the parents’ UIDs in the database and the child’s ID is not issued on the basis of de-duplication of his/her biometrics.

This however, increases the risk of duplicates and fakes among UIDs for children. Such UIDs would represent a significant proportion of the UIDs issued, since the percentage of population below 15 years of age is 35.3 per cent according to the 2001 census.

The iris presents a potential means to issue the majority of children a unique number linked to their biometrics, since the iris stabilises at a very young age. Unlike fingerprints, iris is said to be fully developed at the time of birth itself.

“If we use iris besides the fingerprints, we would be able to reduce the size of our inaccurate UID sub-set due to the inability to de-duplicate from 35 per cent to 11 per cent, according to the 2001 census. Moreover, adding more biometrics will increase the cost of the project,” added Sharma.