Digital Identity: Global Roundup

Jordan

IrisGuard and the Jordanian Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship have signed an agreement for the use of iris recognition to enhance access to governmental and private sector services. Jordan claims it is the first country to apply iris recognition technologies in governmental services.

IrisGuard says its solution, including both iris cameras hardware and software applications, will enable “a safe and secure activation of the digital identity (Sanad) via iris recognition issued by the Ministry to citizens, in real-time.” The service will be available at all Jordanian Post Offices and Kingdom’s embassies abroad, as well as notary services related to land, property and vehicle ownership.

The implementation of the agreement is expected to start in stages in the coming weeks and expand to include iris enabled, digital services in additional governmental areas such as electronic gates for travellers, healthcare and other facilities provided to the private sector and residents in Jordan.

Europe

IDnow has expanded its platform to include fully automated document liveness capabilities, data checks and Financial Risk Checks as well as new fraud prevention features. The platform expansion will also include a central, no-code workflow management tool.

The automated document liveness check relies on IDnow’s video analysis and requires the user to record a video of their ID document, enabling an automated check on the visible security elements of the document, such as holograms. The firm says this helps companies in their fight against the rising risk of fraud through forged documents.

United Kingdom

A pilot project to show the feasibility of real-time fraud intelligence sharing described as ‘first-of-its-kind’ by Synectics Solutions has been launched in partnership with Mitek and Yoti.

The shared signals pilot is a proof-on-concept initiative dubbed ‘Project Shield.’

During Phase 1 of the pilot, Synectics’ National SIRA platform provides the dedicated digital pathway along which specific signals will be shared by Yoti and Mitek to test data that can help identify fake or fraudulently obtained ID documents. Yoti and Mitek will use the platform’s real-time API and asynchronous alert system, and the same platform is currently used by banks. The data shared will include information on compromised credentials, accounts, and identities.

Global

An initiative created to help governments with few resources digitize their services, has launched its framework version 1 and is seeking product candidates.

Launched in 2020, GovStack‘s service was created to reduce the cost, time and resources required to create digital platforms and services. The project takes inspiration and practices from digital services champions such as Estonia, India and Singapore. It was founded by Estonia, Germany, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL)

Its software modules are use-case specific. GovStack defines the technical specifications for the building blocks and their APIs.

The consortium released a new version of specifications last week, including nine foundational building blocks: Identity verification, payments, consent, digital registries, messaging, information mediation, registration, scheduler and workflow. More than 80 tech experts from over 40 organizations contributed to this work, the organisation says in a release. They specifications are meant to help developers of digital public goods and commercial software, and government IT leaders.

Indonesia

Norwegian Protectoria Venture AS has together with its local partner, PT Gimle Investment Group, signed an agreement with PT INTI (Persero), the state-owned enterprise acting as an adviser to the central government, on proposing a decentralised digital identity infrastructure services for public entities, companies, and citizens in Indonesia.

The companies commit to cooperate exclusively to design, build and operate a digital decentralised identity infrastructure that can be offered towards any service provider from any sector or industry in a national roll-out. Citizens will be able to control their own data and have easy and secure access to all types of digital services in society.

Netherlands

Start-up Truvity has announced the launch of its first product — a platform with SDK and API for developers of applications that want to harness the power of the SSI (Self Sovereign Identity) technologies. The company has exited stealth mode, announcing publicly for the first time its funding to date of €8m and is now rolling out early access for its technology.

Truivity says it can provide “fast and simple identity verification” thanks to reusable information controlled by the user, can also benefit HR, insurance, education, travel, social services, and many other sectors.

United States / United Kingdom

Vouched, a Seattle-based identity verification specialist, has partnered with UK-based Zenoo to help the latter expand the use of its digital ID platform for refugees, FreedomID.

Vouched is providing a selfie-based onboarding system for the platform. An end user is asked to upload a live selfie and an image of their photo ID, along with information including phone number and email address. That launches an automated verification process, with a manual review triggered if the account set-up process does not meet FreedomID’s risk criteria.

Zenoo CEO, Stuart Watkins, said that FreedomID was initially developed to protect Ukrainian refugees and is now striving to become the global standard for safeguarding vulnerable individuals affected by crises.

Global

Identity verification provider Veriff is partnering with Inverid, the first Near Field Communication (NFC)-based mobile identity verification technology, in order “to bolster the company’s existing identity verification offerings.”

Inverid’s ReadID’s identity verification solution “verifies identities through government-issued identity documents with contactless NFC chips and NFC-enabled smartphones.”

With Veriff’s identity verification solution, Inverid can now “read data and confirm the identities of users who do not have biometric (chipped) identity documents or a smartphone available, expanding their user base.”