Spectator by Seema Goswami: Keepers of the code
OTPs started out as a security measure. Now, they’ve become ways to rage-bait us and lock us out of a simple life
I can’t be the only one whose life has been blighted by the OTP culture that seems to have overtaken us. Not even the simplest task can be accomplished without an OTP – One Time Password – being sent to your phone, which you are then required to access Right Away before it expires, so that you can share it digitally or in real life to get the service you signed up for.
Want your RO machine serviced so that your family can access safe drinking water? You will have to share an OTP with the maintenance guy to confirm that the service has been done. Ordered something completely innocuous and inexpensive from Amazon (or Flipkart or Myntra)? Make sure you remain glued to your phone so that you can share the OTP with the delivery guy (Spoiler alert: If you fail to do so, he will leave and you will have to schedule delivery for another day). Want a Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate for your car? It won’t be issued until the service centre sends an OTP to your registered number, which you then have to share with them.
Now, even accessing streaming services while you are travelling means becoming a prisoner of the OTP culture. Last week, while staying in a hotel, I logged into my Netflix account through the QR code on the screen. It always worked perfectly before. But now I got a message that the TV was not a part of my household. And if I was travelling I needed to enter – yes, you guessed it! – an OTP to access my own account.
{{/usCountry}}Now, even accessing streaming services while you are travelling means becoming a prisoner of the OTP culture. Last week, while staying in a hotel, I logged into my Netflix account through the QR code on the screen. It always worked perfectly before. But now I got a message that the TV was not a part of my household. And if I was travelling I needed to enter – yes, you guessed it! – an OTP to access my own account.
{{/usCountry}}What fresh hell is this that we find ourselves in? Where even the simplest task involves obsessively checking your phone so that you don’t miss the tiny window in which your OTP is valid? Where nothing can be accomplished unless you share an OTP with your service provider? Where we have essentially become digital slaves to those four digits that rule our world?
{{/usCountry}}What fresh hell is this that we find ourselves in? Where even the simplest task involves obsessively checking your phone so that you don’t miss the tiny window in which your OTP is valid? Where nothing can be accomplished unless you share an OTP with your service provider? Where we have essentially become digital slaves to those four digits that rule our world?
{{/usCountry}}We all talk wistfully of doing a digital detox once in a while so that we can step away momentarily from our hyper-connected world. But how on Earth is that possible when we have to check OTPs and share them every hour or so? And given that there is no guarantee when they will pop up, this means that we remain prisoners of our phones all day (and sometimes all night) long.
The strangest part of this phenomenon is that not too many people seem to be overly bothered by it. Instead, they just take it as a given that they have to patiently wait for an OTP to accomplish any task whatsoever.
I can understand the logic of having a One Time Password if you are doing a bank or credit card transaction or even making purchases online. Those sort of security measures are necessary. But why does my local garage need to send me an OTP before they issue my PUC certificate? Why does an online purchase of a few thousand rupees need an OTP before it is delivered? This kind of stuff doesn’t accomplish anything much in terms of security. It just seems to be designed to give you the maximum amount of aggravation possible.
These OTPs have gone from being One Time Passwords to becoming All Time Pains. And it’s time that we seriously reevaluated their use.