Ajay Sudan
How you are currently managing your all- important documents? It is either physical format or storing in scanned image format in local computer, emails or in Dropbox.
However, how safe is it to believe on your own security system or third party security? Instead, what about using Govt. owned platform, which is fully secure? The answer is a Govt. of India’s recently launched DigiLocker.
As of now if any agency need documents then you need to submit it in physical or scanned image format. This is a cumbersome task not only for you, but to agency also. Because authenticating the originality is a big task to agencies.Otherwise, someone can fake your documents, which you may not notice. Hence, it is very much essential to integrate the issuer, user, and the agency in a safe method.
The main objectives of creating such a vast based digital format of documentation storage are minimizing the usage of physical documents, eliminating the fake usage of documents, provide a default DigiLocker to all residents.
DigiLocker is a service launched by Government of India in February 2015 to provide a secure dedicated personal electronic space for storing the documents of resident Indian citizens. The storage space (maximum 1GB) is linked to the Aadhaar number of the user. The space can be utilized for storing personal documents like University certificates, PAN cards, voter ID cards, etc., and the URI’s of the e-documents issued by various issuer departments. There is also an associated facility for e-signing documents. The service is intended to minimize the use of physical documents and to provide authenticity of the e-documents. It will also provide secure access to Govt. issued documents. It is also intended to reduce administrative expenses of Govt. departments and agencies and to make it easy for the residents to receive services.
Between your wallet and that locker in your house where you keep things safe (in theory; in practice you forget to put things in there safely, and then have a panic attack as you desperately search everywhere for your missing passport), how many government documents do you think you have? A quick check shows that there are several at hand – an Aadhaar card, a driver’s license, voter ID, PAN card, all in the wallet, and a passport at home. Then there’s old income tax returns, property tax receipts, and educational certificates from school and college, all kept “safely” archived for when they’re needed.
That’s a huge number of documents to keep and manage, and the government also seems to have taken notice. As part of Digital India week on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially launched a digital locker service called DIGILocker, though the service was soft-launched sometime back.
So what exactly is DIGILocker? Very simply, it’s a website where you can store your various government issued documents, using your Aadhaar card as your identification. While it hasn’t been stated as such, to us, it also looks like a good way of bringing data from different government agencies together under the aegis of the Aadhaar card, potentially making the document more useful to people carrying it.
To sign up, you need only enter your Aadhaar number, and an SMS is set out to the mobile phone number you registered at the enrolment camp. This one-time-password is the only way to get inside your DIGILocker for the first time, but afterwards, you can set your own password or link the DIGILocker to your Google or Facebook login.
After you’ve signed up, you can upload your government documents to the DIGILocker – there’s only 10MB of storage at present – but you can also save the Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) of government documents using DIGILocker. The idea is that this should minimise the need for physical documents; if your birth and education certificates are online, and you apply for a passport, then the Passport Office could use your Aadhaar number to request the DIGILocker for your details, without needing you to carry a large file of documents for the application. Or, the RTO could issue your Driver’s License directly to your DIGILocker, based on your Aadhaar information alone; this way, if you need to send your new license to any agency as verification, you’ll have an online, authenticated version available whenever you need it.
There’s also a planned e-Signature facility with DIGILocker, though that will be launched later; between digital signatures and government documents in the cloud, it is clear that the government wants to make it easier for people to use government services online. Today, getting almost anything done with the government requires you to produce ID documents, which requires a visit to the government offices. Few, if any, government branches allow you to mail a copy of your documents – which actually makes sense for security reasons – but DIGILocker will be a way to authentically curate your documents, and make it easy to share them to different departments.
There’s also the question of external threats. While the DIGILocker website looks to have the basics in place by using HTTPS (the same protocol that your bank uses to secure communication between your computer and their servers) for the main part of the website, you have to wonder how secure the backend is. You can be pretty sure that a place where everyone is keeping their official documents will be a target for hackers foreign and local.
Right now, there’s not too many ways in which DIGILocker is useful, but it’s a clear signpost to the direction we’re moving in. Some people worry that this much centralised data could lead to misuse, and also warn of the potential of small mistakes in documents now creating much bigger problems than before, but there’s no denying that the convenience of having all our documents digitally accessible and easily shared to different government departments when needed is very appealing.
To access your digital locker, visit DIGILocker and you can sign up now for free. You need Aadhaar Card and Phone number. Aadhaar card is the mandatory document. Phone number is must to receive the OTP (One Time Password) while creating login. Once you do this then the pop up will show you to enter your email id (which will be your user id) and password.
Once this process is over then you can upload the documents of your choice. For example, I uploaded my wife’s Aadhar card and which can be viewed under “My Certificate” tab. Some more details about this screen are My Certificates -It contains two types. One is “Digital Documents”, which are verified by respective issuer, and other documents are listed in “Uploaded Documents. My Profile-This section displays the full profile of what is available in Aadhaar Card. My Issuer -This section list all the documents, which are issued to this individual. My Requester -This section list all the agencies which requested the documents by an individual. Directories -This list all the issuers and requester with their link.
Currently this system uses the safety of what your banks uses like using your email id or phone number to authenticate an individual. As of now it is not clear how many central organizations already tied with this and whether state issuing authorities also tied up or not. And if you have any concerns, then you can contact the support team via email- support@digitallocker.gov.in
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