Editorial

Digital Identity: Global Roundup

Digital identity news from around the world

Posted 27 June 2022 by Christine Horton


Global

Mitek has launched a new identity verification platform to help organisations protect digital identities and experiences throughout the entire customer journey.

MiVIP, or the Mitek Verified Identity Platform, has been released against a backdrop of spiking fraud rates, with the National Council on Identity Theft Protection noting that nearly half of US citizens experienced identity theft in the past two years, Mitek notes in the announcement.

The MiVIP platform allows organizations to orchestrate its range of identity verification, KYC and authentication technologies, from document checking to biometrics, geolocation, PEPS and sanctions and bureau checks. Those technologies were increased by Mitek with the recent acquisitions of HooYu and ID R&D, with the company saying when the latter was agreed to just over a year ago that it intended to address the security of the full transaction lifecycle.

Europe

The European Union’s Data Protection Supervisor has brought together experts on digital identity and digital wallets to appraise the current situation of the EU’s digital identity plans.

The Internet Privacy Engineering Network (IPEN) Workshop on Digital Identity described its aim as “understanding the challenges and identifying the state of the art of the available options for compliant and privacy-enhancing solutions.”

Thomas Lohninger, VP of digital rights umbrella group European Digital Rights (EDRi) and executive director of the digital rights NGO Epicenter.Works in Vienna, outlined the major privacy issues the European project entails and the current reforms to plans, reports Biometric Update.

“The 2014 eIDAS regulation was actually ahead of its time because it enshrined in law the principle of privacy by design for the interoperability framework in Article 12 paragraph 3.c. Sadly that principle was deleted by the Commission in the reform we are currently looking at,” said Lohninger.

The breadth of the scheme is not yet clear as all the attributes are not yet known. But it is set to cover most aspects of life and the organisations and companies with which people interact. Covid passes will be built in, indicating the potential scope of use cases given the requirement to show the passes at public venues visited. By 2030, the Commission is aiming for 80 percent penetration across the EU for its ID scheme, said Lohninger.

United States

American Airlines customers with TSA PreCheck can now use mobile identification to move through the airport, through collaboration with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Starting at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), American Airlines AAdvantage members who are enrolled in TSA PreCheck may choose to use their American Airlines Mobile ID at select TSA PreCheck checkpoints to have their identity verified. The experience is now available at every TSA PreCheck location at DFW, with plans to deploy at select TSA PreCheck checkpoints at Miami International Airport (MIA), Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) and more later this year.

United Kingdom

London-based digital identification software firm Yoti has launched a trial with Facebook-owned Instagram to test its age verification technology on the social media platform.

The partnership between Yoti and Instagram will begin by testing US users who try to edit their date of birth to appear over 18. Instagram will request them to upload their ID, record a video or ask friends for confirmation.

When asked if Instagram was looking to make age verification mandatory for new users, a company spokesperson said: “To start with we are focusing this test on people attempting to change their date of birth from under 18 to 18 and over – we’re working to understand when someone may be misrepresenting their age, and providing our menu of options to those people.

“We will continue to look for more opportunities to test and expand the menu of options to verify age.”

United States

Deduce is now listed on the Ping Identity Integration Directory. The partnership will allow Ping Identity users to prevent consumer-facing Account Takeover (ATO) and registration fraud via the Deduce Identity Network—an extensive real-time identity graph across cyber risk and fraud in the U.S. today with over 500 million profiles and over 1.4B daily activities collected from a consortium of over 150,000 websites and applications.

United States

Liquid Avatar Technologies, a global blockchain and FinTech solutions company focused on digital identity, integrated avatars, and the Metaverse, has partnered with D.A.R.E. America, to create the D.A.R.E. Digital Program. The new initiative will provide products and services ranging from digital identity verification and credentials to digital avatars, NFTs, and mixed reality opportunities (including Metaverse programs) to more than 1.2 million students in the United States annually, their families, and over 10,000 communities across the US, along with 29 other countries worldwide.

Togo

The parliament in Togo recently adopted a bill which amends an existing law on biometric identification of Togolese citizens, which the country says is part of efforts to improve the national security of the country and help meet its digital transformation goals.

According to reporting by Togo First, the bill to amend biometric identification rules was adopted alongside another one which strengthens and assigns new roles to the country’s National Cybersecurity Agency. It also extends the powers of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Telecommunications and Posts on the aspect of issuing accreditation to bodies providing trust services.

Global

A new survey suggests that nearly every organization is pursuing investment in identity management technology, with 64 percent claiming identity initiatives are a top-three priorities for their security programs. But there is much more work to be done, considering that 84 percent of respondents said their company experienced a breach over the past year due to a digital identity compromise — an increase from 79 percent last year.

The 2022 Trends in Securing Digital Identities report is from the non-profit Identity Defined Security Alliance (ISDA).

When asked what action could have been the difference-maker that prevented a breach they experienced, respondents most commonly cited the implementation of multi-factor authentication (43 percent). And yet, only 45 percent of survey-takers said that their companies had fully implemented MFA for their employees, while another 36 percent said it was a work in progress.

Finland

Finland is one step closer to introducing a digital identification system after a ministerial working group on Thursday approved a legislative proposal on the matter.

As of next year, it will most likely be possible to prove one’s identity using a mobile application.

The identification app will work for both in-person and online interactions.

“A digital identity will improve people’s ability to manage their data and will make handling day-to-day affairs more convenient in many ways,” said Minister of Local Government Sirpa Paatero (SDP) in a statement.

Finland is also seeking to revamp the personal identity code system to enable gender-neutral social security numbers.

United States

California Governor Gavin Newsom has praised ID.me’s identity verification solution, crediting the solution for helping the state to preven $125 billion worth of fraud activity.

However, both the Senate and the House of Representatives are currently investigating the company for failing to disclose the fact that it was using one-to-many facial recognition technology in its dealings with the IRS. The government has pegged the tech as a privacy concern, while the Senate, in particular, has suggested that the failure to disclose was a deceptive business practice.

The $125 billion in fraud attempts was specifically directed toward the California Employment Development Department (EDD), which was tasked with distributing unemployment relief during the Covid-19 pandemic. ID.me has been partnered with the agency since October of 2020, and has provided similar services for dozens of state employment departments all over the country.

Global

Apple has developed a new solution that would use the company’s iCloud platform to bypass CAPTCHAs on the web and in apps. It would do so using Private Access Tokens, or PATs:, a server would ask an Apple device for a token using the HTTP PrivateToken authentication method, and iCloud’s attestor system would respond by getting a certificate from the device’s Secure Enclave and passing it along.

The requesting server would not receive any particular information about the end user, but would instead trust Apple’s attestor that it really is a bona fide human at the other end.

The vendor made the announcement at revealed at its recent Worldwide Developers Conference. There it also announced its Passkeys solution, which is designed to store a unique code for each of a user’s online accounts on their device, which can be unlocked using Apple’s biometric authentication systems. This, says Apple, can deliver a better user experience by eliminating the need to enter passwords when accessing online accounts, instead replacing them with face- or fingerprint-based login mechanisms.

United Kingdom

The Government Digital Service spent £4.9 million in 2021 on work dedicated to “data and user insights”.

Public Technology reports that the work was to shed light on the experience of users of GDS products – including both government officials and citizens. Activities included “data science, user research, performance analysis and data engineering”, according to Heather Wheeler, the junior Cabinet Office minister with responsibility for the tech agency, and the wider digital government brief.

Wheeler said that such initiatives covered a range of products and tools overseen by GDS, including the new government-wide login system that is now ready to begin on-boarding departmental services – five of which will go live with the new technology as part of pilot programmes beginning in September.

“The purpose is to guide the development of our products, to ensure that they meet the needs of the user, whether that user be a civil servant or a citizen,” the minister said. “This includes: GOV.UK, the One Login for Government programme, GOV.UK Pay, GOV.UK Notify, and the GOV.UK Design System.”

Jamaica

Jamaicans living anywhere in the world will be able to get the new generation national biometric ID card when the rollout begins effectively by next year, according to Minister without Portfolio at the Prime Minister’s Office Floyd Green.

According to the minister, those who have resided in the country for at least six months will also be eligible for the cards. Applicants will have to pre-enroll for the IDs online after which they will be required to travel to Jamaica to have their biometrics captured, including facial images and fingerprints, Green notes.

The ID rollout will unfold in three phases – from registration and collection of biometric data to verification and collection of a PIN for the activation of the ID card to be issued. Pilot centers will first be set up in Kingston and St Andrew by August 2022, ahead of a national pilot, while full rollout is planned for 2023, says Biometric Update.

Green was also quoted as saying the new ID cards will be extremely secure with 26 security features at three levels, up from the 12 which the current version of the national ID has.

The ID card will also be the unique proof of identity for holders and will enable them have access to a wide range of public services, authorities say.

Greece

Greece’s Digital Governance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis says smartphone users in the country will be able to access their ID cards and driver’s licenses from a digital wallet by the end of next month.

Coming after a pilot for the ID card conducted last December, the digital ID wallet rollout is meant to facilitate the way citizens carry along their ID credentials. The official added that new ID has been designed with a QR Code to ease transaction with state institutions.

Pierrakakis also reportedly hinted at the replacement of the current social security number and the AFM tax ID with a new citizen registration number.

Serbia / Turkey

A protocol agreement to be signed soon between Serbia and Turkey will allow citizens enter the other country with just a valid biometric national ID card instead of visas and passports.

The Serbian government says the objective of the deal is to improve and facilitate the movement of people and goods between both countries, and also encourage tourist visits.

Both countries enjoy special relations in different other domains, and since 2010, movement between them has been possible without a visa, the report notes.

Norwegians have also been approved for entry into Turkey with only their biometric national ID cards, on a temporary basis.