Editorial

Digital Identity: Global Roundup

Digital identity news from around the world

Posted 9 May 2023 by Christine Horton


Africa

African countries including Ghana, Gabon, Guinea, Rwanda, Tunisia and Zimbabwe have signed a declaration on data and digital identity interoperability to advance their digital and economic integration and prosperity objectives.

Biometric Updates reports the countries signed the Smart Africa Trust Alliance (SATA), a collaborative initiative “aimed at fostering trust and promoting secure and responsible digital transformation in Africa.”

The declaration aims to encourage the adoption and expansion of digital public goods, streamline digital integration and data sharing, as well as encourage the development of digital identity ecosystems.

Australia

The government of New South Wales has started testing the beta version of the new NSW digital ID. The service aims to give people more control over managing their personal information online.

When setting up a digital ID, users only need to verify their identity once, allowing them to prove they are over 18 without providing further personal data such as their date of birth or street address. The digital ID will also integrate with the NSW Digital Wallet, enabling people to safely and securely store and control who has access to their verifiable credentials in real-time.

Germany

WebID Solutions and CRIF Germany have announced are partnering up to offer digital identity services in banking, financial services, mobility, telecoms, and ecommerce.

WebID Solutions’ software enables customers to identify themselves securely. The deal combines a range of services for credit assessment and risk management solutions from CRIF Germany with the product portfolio of online identification processes from WebID Solutions. The newly created know-your-customer (KYC) processes will enable them to support companies with digital onboarding in the future.

Global

Onfido’s Real Identity Platform services are now available for Salesforce Financial Services Cloud customers.

Financial Services Cloud customers now have access to a suite of Onfido’s services, including Onfido’s library of global identity verification tools, Studio, Onfido’s identity orchestration product, and Atlas AI, Onfido’s anti-bias artificial intelligence software. These tools can be integrated with Onfido’s Smart Capture Link, enabling Salesforce customers to use low-code technology to verify the identity of prospective and existing customers more quickly.

Up until now, Salesforce customers have only been able to use Onfido’s app in the Salesforce AppExchange to reduce customer friction in the onboarding process.

United Kingdom

The UK Home Office has entered a new two-year agreement with options for two additional years with Inverid and other technology partners – Entrust and iProov – to expand the digitisation of UK immigration application processes.

It said the solution enables a more streamlined way for travellers coming to the UK to be identified via their facial biometrics and biometric passport. The new contract will, among others, support the pending UK Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) that could apply to 30 million travellers per year, under the Generic Identity and Document Verification (GIDV) programme.

Combining Inverid’s ReadID technology with the Identity and Document Verification as a Service from Entrust and iProov’s liveness technology enables “faster and more secure immigration application processing, mitigating the need for applicants to physically send their passport to the Home Office or apply in person.”

The service works in conjunction with Home Office online application processes and involves the use of a mobile app with ReadID inside which reads and verifies the chip in a person’s passport. The applicant then takes a ‘selfie’, or scan, of their face which is matched against their image in the passport chip. A liveness test ensures that the applicant is a real, live person and matches the verified identity document. This information is sent securely to the Home Office which verifies the identity of the passport holder and completes the application process.

Rwanda

Rwanda is to develop and launch a digital national identity card that residents will be able to store and use on their smartphone and which will replace the country’s existing physical ID card.

The digital credential will incorporate biometric data including fingerprints and iris scans and be available for all Rwandan residents from birth rather than from the age of 16 as is currently the case.

The Rwandan parliament is currently considering legislation that will enable the introduction of the digital ID card “within three years” and “is expected to provide solutions to a number of problems, including the situation where there is a category of population who are not catered for in terms of ID provision”.

United States

The White House has included digital identity in its updated list of emerging technologies.

In the latest national security standards report, President Biden’s team lays out parts of the tech industry it will “prioritize” creating standards around.

The strategy is designed to “strengthen both the United States’ foundation to safeguard American consumers’ technology and US leadership and competitiveness in international standards development,” the White House said in a statement Thursday.

The federal government said it would be focusing on “digital identity infrastructure and distributed ledger technologies, which increasingly affect a range of key economic sectors,” per the report.