--- title: India’s Digiyatra: saves time, but at what cost? | daily.dev description: India's Digiyatra program lets airport travelers use facial recognition instead of physical documents to pass security checkpoints. Built on W3C standards with... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/india-s-digiyatra-saves-time-but-at-what-cost--4js4dsamk twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: India’s Digiyatra: saves time, but at what cost? | daily.dev og:description: India's Digiyatra program lets airport travelers use facial recognition instead of physical documents to pass security checkpoints. Built on W3C standards with... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/india-s-digiyatra-saves-time-but-at-what-cost--4js4dsamk og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/4jS4dsAmK.png og:image:alt: India’s Digiyatra: saves time, but at what cost? og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # India’s Digiyatra: saves time, but at what cost? **[Phoebe Yu](https://daily.dev/sources/phoebeyutbt)** · 12 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary India's Digiyatra program lets airport travelers use facial recognition instead of physical documents to pass security checkpoints. Built on W3C standards with self-sovereign identity, verifiable credentials, and a distributed ledger, it stores biometric data locally and purges it from airport systems within 24 hours. While users report significant time savings and a smoother experience, a 2024 survey at Delhi airport found nearly a third of enrollees signed up without realizing it — a textbook dark pattern. The system is jointly owned by the Indian government and private airports, and though officially voluntary, the enrollment process has been criticized for bypassing informed consent. The piece frames this as a broader lesson for product builders: automation and convenience are powerful, but when they rely on deceptive UX rather than clear consent, they erode user trust and autonomy. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [India makes Aadhaar more ubiquitous, but critics say security and privacy concerns remain](https://daily.dev/posts/india-makes-aadhaar-more-ubiquitous-but-critics-say-security-and-privacy-concerns-remain-ywxialxib) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Your Summer Holiday Has More Security Checks Than You Think](https://daily.dev/posts/your-summer-holiday-has-more-security-checks-than-you-think-mkmhrpml3) · Security Boulevard · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ux](https://daily.dev/tags/ux), [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/india-s-digiyatra-saves-time-but-at-what-cost--4js4dsamk) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"India’s Digiyatra: saves time, but at what cost?","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/india-s-digiyatra-saves-time-but-at-what-cost--4js4dsamk","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/india-s-digiyatra-saves-time-but-at-what-cost--4js4dsamk"},"datePublished":"2026-03-10T18:59:45.862Z","dateModified":"2026-03-10T19:00:11.667Z","description":"India's Digiyatra program lets airport travelers use facial recognition instead of physical documents to pass security checkpoints. 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