Google partners DigiLocker to bring on-device storing of government IDs

Google on Monday announced a partnership with DigiLocker, a government authorised identification storage system, to bring local storage of government issued IDs on Android devices. Announced at the company’s Google for India conference, the partnership is part of Google’s artificial intelligence offerings that include on-device processing of text and images to identify important documents, and organise them in a locally stored ‘Files’ folder. 

In tandem with local organisation of documents using AI, Google’s Android operating system will also tap into the DigiLocker application programming interface (API), and store government issued and authorised identification documents locally on a smartphone itself. 

Abhishek Singh, president and chief executive of National e-Governance Division (NeGD), said that the application developed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) is today authorised to act as the equivalent of an official document, and “very soon”, DigiLocker would be available on Android devices by default, as a pre-installed service. 

Google said that its AI identification organisation system will use AI processing capability that is located locally on every device, and not expose any sensitive document to the internet. The AI system will be able to identify government issued documents such as Aadhaar and PAN, locally. It will be further added with a pattern lock to secure locally stored copies of identification documents. 

Google announced a host of initiatives particular to India at its event. Speaking in a conversation with Ashwini Vaishnaw, Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google, said that India has offered references for a host of technological tools that Google has built for the world. 

“UPI is one of the biggest examples that I cite in terms of a successful digital tool, thanks to our learning with Google Pay. Outside this, we have seen the use of an AI tool to use in flood forecasting that we have developed here, and are starting to use gradually around the world beginning with Bangladesh,” Pichai said.