It's a new year so I decided to start with something new. So far whatever I have written in this blog had very little to do with what I do professionally. This is the first post in the series of multiple posts I intend to write hoping that they reach out to relevant people.
With UID coming into picture and being discussed everywhere for reasons good or bad; there is another related topic gaining popularity, which is Biometric Authentication. I have had multiple discussions in the past, some dating even before UID became a hot topic in payment industry, related to authenticating the customers using their biometrics with people from varied backgrounds. I have even worked on and implemented one such solution for my organization couple of years ago. Some of the points put up by various people during those discussions surprised me. Here is what others suggested and what I believe.
Biometric Authentications is required more in rural India.
One common point that most of the people seem to agree is that the need for biometric authentication is more in rural India. I beg to differ. First lets talk about why it is not as much a requirement in rural parts than in urban parts.
The primary reason given to support the above argument is the level of literacy and exposure to technology among rural population. They say that an illiterate person cannot handle the PIN. I say being illiterate and being stupid are two different things and they are not co-related. I have seen semi-literate people running successful business and I have also seen very educated people writing their PIN on the face of their cards (which is very risky and should not be done under any circumstances). I am assuming the assumption is that the group of population we are talking here are semi-literate because we are expecting them to perform banking transactions. So they understand numbers and also basic mathematics. Even if they don't PIN is not a 4 digit number, what I mean is if your PIN is 2645, it is not two thousand six hundred forty five; it's two six four five. As long as each of these images look different and can be matched with the images on the keypad of an ATM or a handheld device, anyone can punch the PIN with or without any education on mathematics.
They also fear that a rural person might not be able to keep the PIN secure. There could be two meanings to it. One, he may share his PIN with others. Well, tell a person that this is the key to access all your hard earned saving and sharing it with someone with mean you risk all of it and then see what they will do. They will keep it as their best kept secret. Two, someone could fraudulently get hold of the PIN. For this I am relying on the assumption that a fraudster is supposedly a smart person and no smart person would go through so much trouble to steal few hundreds/thousands while he can by using the same methods steal lacs from urban population.
So, as per my logic a rural semi-literate person can handle PIN very well and in many cases even better than his urban literate counterpart.
Why biometric authentication is a bigger need for urban India?
This should be easy to explain, since most of the people reading this belong to this section and will be able to relate to it. Here we are talking about a population who needs to remember so many passwords that these days many mobile phone manufacturers have launched smartphones with in-built password keeper application. A common urban person who regularly uses his debit/credit card for transactions also is the person who needs to remember a bunch of passwords. For example: Debit Card PIN, Credit Card PIN (which I presume very few bother to remember and are lost when they need it for some specific transaction), telephone banking TIN, Internet Banking IPIN, e-mail password, workstation password, passwords to many social networks he might be a part of and so on. The list is endless. Now if to such people I tell that they need not remember a few of these passwords and they can be authenticated using their finger prints when they are using their card at ATM/POS and they can be recognized using their voice while using telephone banking, I personally believe they will be delighted. It will also save them the trouble of changing their password every few month for fear of compromising it.
Another point in support of my argument is the level of identity theft and skimming frauds, which are on the rise. As long as there is a PIN it can be compromised, if the fraudster is smart enough. Urban population is more likely target to such fraudster simply because they offer better return on investment to the fraudster. Now if there is no PIN and only my finger print can allow withdrawal of cash from an ATM, what any fraudster can do. If we manage to build a strong biometric authentication mechanism we may even be able to do away with cards. No cards, no card frauds.
Hoping for a brighter future and a happening year ahead for payment Industry.
With UID coming into picture and being discussed everywhere for reasons good or bad; there is another related topic gaining popularity, which is Biometric Authentication. I have had multiple discussions in the past, some dating even before UID became a hot topic in payment industry, related to authenticating the customers using their biometrics with people from varied backgrounds. I have even worked on and implemented one such solution for my organization couple of years ago. Some of the points put up by various people during those discussions surprised me. Here is what others suggested and what I believe.
Biometric Authentications is required more in rural India.
One common point that most of the people seem to agree is that the need for biometric authentication is more in rural India. I beg to differ. First lets talk about why it is not as much a requirement in rural parts than in urban parts.
The primary reason given to support the above argument is the level of literacy and exposure to technology among rural population. They say that an illiterate person cannot handle the PIN. I say being illiterate and being stupid are two different things and they are not co-related. I have seen semi-literate people running successful business and I have also seen very educated people writing their PIN on the face of their cards (which is very risky and should not be done under any circumstances). I am assuming the assumption is that the group of population we are talking here are semi-literate because we are expecting them to perform banking transactions. So they understand numbers and also basic mathematics. Even if they don't PIN is not a 4 digit number, what I mean is if your PIN is 2645, it is not two thousand six hundred forty five; it's two six four five. As long as each of these images look different and can be matched with the images on the keypad of an ATM or a handheld device, anyone can punch the PIN with or without any education on mathematics.
They also fear that a rural person might not be able to keep the PIN secure. There could be two meanings to it. One, he may share his PIN with others. Well, tell a person that this is the key to access all your hard earned saving and sharing it with someone with mean you risk all of it and then see what they will do. They will keep it as their best kept secret. Two, someone could fraudulently get hold of the PIN. For this I am relying on the assumption that a fraudster is supposedly a smart person and no smart person would go through so much trouble to steal few hundreds/thousands while he can by using the same methods steal lacs from urban population.
So, as per my logic a rural semi-literate person can handle PIN very well and in many cases even better than his urban literate counterpart.
Why biometric authentication is a bigger need for urban India?
This should be easy to explain, since most of the people reading this belong to this section and will be able to relate to it. Here we are talking about a population who needs to remember so many passwords that these days many mobile phone manufacturers have launched smartphones with in-built password keeper application. A common urban person who regularly uses his debit/credit card for transactions also is the person who needs to remember a bunch of passwords. For example: Debit Card PIN, Credit Card PIN (which I presume very few bother to remember and are lost when they need it for some specific transaction), telephone banking TIN, Internet Banking IPIN, e-mail password, workstation password, passwords to many social networks he might be a part of and so on. The list is endless. Now if to such people I tell that they need not remember a few of these passwords and they can be authenticated using their finger prints when they are using their card at ATM/POS and they can be recognized using their voice while using telephone banking, I personally believe they will be delighted. It will also save them the trouble of changing their password every few month for fear of compromising it.
Another point in support of my argument is the level of identity theft and skimming frauds, which are on the rise. As long as there is a PIN it can be compromised, if the fraudster is smart enough. Urban population is more likely target to such fraudster simply because they offer better return on investment to the fraudster. Now if there is no PIN and only my finger print can allow withdrawal of cash from an ATM, what any fraudster can do. If we manage to build a strong biometric authentication mechanism we may even be able to do away with cards. No cards, no card frauds.
Hoping for a brighter future and a happening year ahead for payment Industry.
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