Digital Identity: Global Roundup

Spain

Barcelona-based startup Union Avatars has raised €1.2 million in funding to offer tools to manage the digital identities of companies and individual users.

The round was led by Inveready and Fi Group and backed by GoHub Ventures, Outlier Ventures, Inlea, Rat Gasol and Carlos Solana. The new cash will be used mainly for product development and international expansion.

Founded in 2020 by Cai Felip and Jordi Conejero, the company offers avatar solutions so users can have a digital representation in video games, social networks, virtual reality worlds, or gamification.

Cayman Islands

Decentralized identity and authentication NuID has launched the Nu Identity (NuID) Ecosystem.

The ecosystem will enable internet users to own and control their digital identity by using services built upon NuID’s zero-knowledge authentication solution. It is powered by Kii, a new utility token – the public sale of which started last week. The company is using LATOKEN as the launchpad for its IEO and will launch the token in partnership with The Kii Foundation.

Kii token holders will be the first to access the NuID ecosystem, which empowers users to choose what identifying data they want to share on the web, and to whom they share it. Token holders can use Kii to register their authentication credentials on a public blockchain, issue data attestations, access future identity use cases within the ecosystem. This includes KYC and identity verification, credential issuance, healthcare records, digitised assets, education credentials, verified claims, and decentralised data storage.

Global

Six out of 10 consumers demand ‘robust digital identity verification’ from financial services, according to new survey conducted by identity verification firm Jumio.

Before getting involved with financial services, 63 percent of consumers said it is necessary to use a digital identity to prove who they say they are. The Digital Identity in 2022 study indicated that consumers are expecting brands or certain sectors to provide digital identity to create an online account or complete a transaction.

Following the financial sector, 54 percent of consumers also said digital identity must be present in healthcare whilst 46 percent of consumers said digital identity must also be provided on social media.

United Kingdom

Digital games marketplace Kinguin has partnered with IDV provider Shufti Pro to integrate KYC in late 2022 for some purchases to further improve Kinguin’s fraud prevention.

Shufti Pro’s configurable KYC solution will ensure that Kinguin customers can “seamlessly and safely” purchase any of the thousands of digital products on the Kinguin Marketplace.

Brazil

Brazil’s federal government is working on biometric identity verification infrastructure that would act as a backstop for businesses looking for a better way to reduce fraud.

State-owned Federal Data Processing Service, or Serpro, has approved an integration with ID infrastructure vendor Persona. The company will run checks against the Serpro database of personally identifiable information, including biometric data, to enable businesses to verify customers’ identities.

Persona CEO Rick Song says that fraud is regularly perpetrated in Brazil with forged government ID documents.

However Biometric Update reports that Persona executives “may get more than they bargained for” in the partnership as the federal government is selling off state-owned operations. Some Serpro staff reportedly oppose the privatisation move because they say it could jeopardise citizens’ personal information held by Serpro.

Persona says the integration represents “a new verification type,” but has not shared any further details.

Businesses would compare identity information against the federal government’s database, which holds citizens’ name, national ID numbers, birthdate and a photo. A selfie collected by Persona would be compared to the Serpro image.

Europe

Renew, the third largest group in the EU parliament, has joined the Greens and Socialists & Democrats groups in backing a ban on artificial intelligence (AI)-powered facial recognition in public crowds.

The move was reported by Politico, which received a document detailing a proposed civil liability law for artificial intelligence applications.

“We’re going to ban what we believe is not according to our values, the deployment [of biometric identification] in public spaces where we as Europeans, we believe that we need to be free of the risks of mass surveillance,” said Renew’s Dragoș Tudorache. “The prevailing position in this house is to support the ban for this technology.”