Aadhaar ID

Tackling Identity Fraud in India's Rural Regions

Context:

Aadhaar is the world's largest biometric ID system and over 92.7% of the Indian population are currently using it as a proof of identity. It is issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) originally for food rationing in rural regions. However, as the use of Aadhaar expands, so does the the vulnerability of the system, which leads to digital security issues such as data breaches, identity fraud, data corruption, and misuse within identity custodians. As the UN is planning to transfer Aadhaar's service infrastructure to other less economically developed countries, it would be necessary to look into existing problems and possible future solutions.

Goal:

To work closely with India government officials and locals to identity key problems with Aadhaar and design a solution that will fulfil UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Outcome:

A low cost and easily accessible service that helps India's government and businesses to work together to protect Aadhaar users' digital identity rights through transparency of information and education.

Role

Role:

Project Lead

Service Designer

Product Designer

Methods:

User & expert research, hypothesis driven design, storyboards, prototype

Partner:

United Nations UN-Habitat Digital Helpdesk

Tutor:

Nicolás Rebolledo Bustamante

Time:

3 Months

Oct - Nov 2022,

Feb 2023

Approach

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme or UN Habitat focuses on human settlements and sustainable urban development. The brief for the project was open for various topics, but we understood that we have to solve an unknown problem in the future, and allow UN-Habitat to be prepared with a solution when a country is in need for help. This is why we chose the Hypothesis Driven Design approach to locate a future problem through research, and design a possible solution through prototype and validation.

Research

Insights

Research

To be in line with UN's goals of protecting digital rights, identity systems should be accessible, transparent and secure. Our approach in research consists mainly of desk research to discover existing problems and analysing failed solutions, as well as questionnaires and interviews to find unsolved problems amongst Aadhaar stakeholders.

Desk Research

Main problems and existing solutions of Aadhaar includes:

- Identity Theft: Implemented service to lock biometric details

(but process is prolonged and confusing for users)

- Data Leak: Implemented "data vault", a centralised data storage system

(but data are still sold on dark web)

- Digital Fraud: Implemented live time authentication such as iris and fingerprint identification.

(but did not work in areas with low digital literacy and with lack of technological equipment)

- Misuse of Biometrics: Implemented OTP sent to user's phones to prevent unauthorised use.

(but third-party authorities copies and sells their client's information for monetary gains)

These were some of the problems we found that poses threats towards people's privacy and security.

Questionnaire & User Interview

To find out user's view towards Aadhaar and their pain points, we did a small questionnaire with 30 Aadhaar identity holders who have access to electronic devices and have a good understanding of Aadhaar ID. We summarised their responses to a single persona and these are the key takeaways:

100% of our respondents are aware of the flaws within the Aadhaar system, such as misuse of digital information, scam calls and etc. They either heard on news or through friends and family.
46% don't know the correct solution when Aadhaar is misused, most goes straight to police which will guide them to the right department.
1 individual had name issue with their Aadhaar ID, which hindered them with their applications to other services. Their complaint went through 3 different departments and took more than a year to resolve.
2 individual lost money due to identity theft, they couldn't get help from UIDAI or reimbursement.

With only 30 samples, the response cannot represent India's whole population, but we can see the problem is severe when 3/30 individuals here have had serious issues with Aadhaar and digital human rights.

Interview with UIDAI Workers

*Note: Government workers have consented to interview without disclosing their identity.

We worked with 2 UIDAI department workers to find out why complaints are not resolved for Aadhaar users.

Key problems from UIDAI:

Server delay and process through multiple channels, which cause longer review time.
Overload of complaints which results to many issues being ignored.
Complex issues require technical and legal support, which cannot be resolved.

With the help of workers from UIDAI, we mapped out the UIDAI complaint and feedback system to visualise how an Aadhaar ID holder's problem is resolved.

We discovered that with each method of submitting a complaint (through phone, post, website and email), there're differences for each in handling departments, approval requirements, and processing duration. Although every complaint's final destination is "UIDAI Headquarters Appeals Panel", some complaints are lost midway or passed down to the wrong officer department.

Therefore, the current complaints system is extremely inefficient and UIDAI are unable to resolve issues or consolidate feedback to improve their digital identity system.

Insights

Aadhaar System:

Poor privacy & security
Server delay
Too many departs for one complaint to go through

Aadhaar Users:

Unable to complain and/or get desired results in time.
Confused about the process, i.e. who to reach out to, or if their complaints are received.
Many overlooks the protection of their Aadhaar ID and are unaware of theirs' being misused.

UIDAI / Aadhaar Public Officials:

They receive complaints and feedback not directly from users, but from the Government Public Complaints Department, UIDAI Public Complaints Officers, Regional Offices, UIDAI Contact Centres, Police, and third-party Aadhaar Card Affiliates such as Insurance Companies, Telecom Services and Banks. Main insights are:

Overload of complaints from various departments.
Receive complaints not related to their department.
Aadhaar user information are often leaked by third-party affiliates.

Design Direction

To make Aadhaar more secure for India's residents and to improve efficiency of the system for UIDAI workers, we need a better complaints & feedback mechanism that will allow information transparency for users,

but also help UIDAI to collect and process problems more effectively.

Experiment 1: App & Website

Problem Statement:

Aadhaar currently has a disconnected solution structure to problems related to digital rights and accessibility. India government public officials lack feedback mechanisms and they are unable to understand problems quickly to build responding action plans. In a future where city services will be digitalised, a poor response system means more cases of Identity Theft, Misuse of Aadhaar, and Bank Fraud.

What we built:

We redesigned the current UI/UX of the Aadhaar App, which was quite outdated with overloaded and unclear direction for users. We also created a service website for government workers to find distribute and receive complaints to specified departments more effectively.
Video Education for users is important and may help reduce unnecessary complaints if user's problems can be resolved without help from officials.
Posters & flyers, as well as video format advertisement to inform residents about Aadhaar's system changes. This aims to rebrand and improve Aadhaar's image to reduce negative scandals and to show the people that the government is making a positive change to their quality of life.

Hypothesis:

With the updated UI, it comes a new feature, which is a two-way feedback mechanism that will help residents give better and more effective issues, and also help public officials collect and solve problems more effectively.

We minimised the cluttered complaint system to a Resolution APP and IRL centres in areas where technology development or digital literacy are low. This reduces time for users and their representatives to submit claim or feedback as they no longer need to be confused about where to find help.
Users are verified through an automated and centralised online government database with OTP and security questions.
The resolution centre will then upload the claim to the "Data Platform", an programmed dispute & resolution server that receives and filters claims to two categories:
1. "Common Solved Claims": which will be provided and automated response and solution. If unsuccessful, claims will be listed as the second category:
2. "Unsolved Claims": that require an collective intelligence to resolve, such as specific experts, technical, or legal support. These claims will be allocated to the correct department through the help of human support. To reduce government worker workload, there will also be an "Open Forum" on the app, where users are able to discuss issues with other people facing similar problems.

What we measured & learned:

To test our concept, we showed our app mockups with existing users and UIDAI workers to receive feedback for improvements.

Users:

Prefer learning through 1 to 1 in-person support, especially older generations.
Learning about Aadhaar safety measures require interest and incentive to initiate.

UIDAI / Aadhaar Worker:

High cost to implement and they are underfunded.
Backend server slows down services for frontend worker.

Validating Hypothesis

Although the users were happy with the new app design and features, the government worker questioned the feasibility of our concept as the cost of making and running the app is most likely out of government budget. Moreover, with our current pool of interviewees, they have a good level of digital literacy to use the app and that older generations or places without internet technology may not be able to.

With the feedback received, we had a train of thought that if more people registers their digital identity, there will be an increase of digital crime cases related to Aadhaar, thus, more resources and manpower are required to review complaints and feedback if we proceed with the current concept. We could automate the responses to users, but no problem have a universal solution.

Moreover, we realised our research pool is centred around people who have access to IT, and have good digital literacy, so what will happen to people without digital resources? We also need to consider India's rise of aging population in the future and find a solution that is low cost and requires minimal to none digital service.

So, what if we can design to prevent issues from happening, rather than designing to respond?

How might we help UIDAI to improve the efficiency of their feedback system without relying on the digital mediums?

Experiment 2 : Card Cover

Problem Statement:

Experiment 2 is adapted from the shortcomings of Experiment 1.

As mentioned before, identity theft and fraud is often caused by third-party affiliates, such as banks, hotels and travel agencies that require photocopies of the physical Aadhaar card as proof of identity. Through more research, we discovered that there is severe miscommunication between government policies and Aadhaar users. The UIDAI advises people that only the last four digits need to be displayed to avoid leakage of personal information, but many people including affiliates are unaware.

Although the UIDAI has made changes to hide the unnecessary digits on user's electronic Aadhaar ID, it does not eliminate the risk of digital ID being leaked.

What we built:

We designed a physical card cover for a digital problem, in which this will hide the first 8 digits and show only the last 4 digits of the individual's Aadhaar ID number to allow service workers to photocopy individual's ID card without compromising the ID holder's privacy and security.

Hypothesis:

Persona

The aim of the card cover is not just to reduce cost of operation, but we wanted to design an universal solution that will help individuals of different social classes and backgrounds.

"Kumar" is the complete opposite of our previous person. He has low digital literacy, have minimal understanding about Aadhaar and how to protect his privacy.

How does it work?

As of the day of this project, 92.7% of residents in India have applied for Aadhaar, with more people expected to apply in the future, this card cover will be included along with the Aadhaar ID when an application is successful.

For individuals who already have an Aadhaar card but not a card cover, they can request this through the Aadhaar app/website or their local authorities.

When Aadhaar users seek service at a third-party affiliate, such as a hotel, they are now able to refuse showing the full Aadhaar ID number to protect their digital identity.

System Map

Flow of goods:

UIDAI department designs and manufactures the card cover along with the physical ID card.
Then these are delivered to users directly or to card claim points.

Flow of money:

Users pay a small charge of application fee which is used by UIDAI to manufacture and distribute ID cards and covers.

Flow of data:

During application process, user's personal data is shared with UIDAI.
This data is shared with workers with authority to print the ID cards, which is highly protected.
When they visit third-party affiliates such as hotels, they only have to show the last four digits.
Third-affiliates are still able to confirm the user identity with UIDAI authentication system.

Business Model:

As this is a social/ government project, the main revenue will be Tax. For business model, we focused on the value propositions as the value gained in this project is greater than monetary gains. Key values includes:

Help UIDAI to propagate the secure use of Aadhaar cards to reduce the pressure for UIDAI workers in the complaints department.
Help users protect their digital identity with minimal operational cost and educate them about data privacy protection with the card cover.

Prototype

What we measured & learned:

We ran 3 tests with10 Aadhaar users who are currently in India.

100% of users were wiling to the keep the card cover on when sharing their card to third-party Aadhaar affiliates.
20% of workers at Aadhaar affiliated services did not accept this as proof of identity.
80% of users were able to mask the number correctly with the card cover, as some were not literate to read the instructions.

Through testing, we learned that there is a big communication gap between the police, UIDAI workers and services that require Aadhaar as a proof of ID. This means new government policies may not be implemented correctly in the future.

In order for this to work, UIDAI must inform third-party affiliates about this new card cover to ensure safe and efficient exchange of service and data.

Validating Hypothesis:

The card cover solves the privacy issue for people without the digital version of Aadhaar ID (which hides the first 8 digits). Moreover, the blank spaces on the card cover are utilised for educational purpose to inform users when and where to use cover to protect their identity. The addition of QR code allows users to have direct access to complaint function if anything they need to submit a claim.

However, educational information printed on the card may not reach to people with limited ability to read. Therefore future iterations should include braille encoded covers for visually impaired and media messages for illiterate individuals.

For UIDAI workers, they agreed that if more people are empowered to protect their identity from lost or stolen, this will ease their workload in the future.

Key Learnings

Client Communication

We weren't actually able to communicate with our partner UN-Habitat on a regular weekly basis as they are not based in London. Due to this, we had to change directions multiple times after each meeting. This made me realise how important it is to work closely with clients or partners to ensure work is done efficiently.

Project Management

Leading this project has been a fantastic experience as my peers were all diligent learners and each had strong skillsets that balanced out the team's ability. Finding government workers from India was a difficult task, but I learned that connecting people early on and a good time management is essential for international projects like this.