The existence of dozens of incompatible standards that hinder organisation’s ability to verify the identities of their customers, according to AU10TIX’s chief business development officer, Ofer Friedman.
Friedman says the problem is an absence of a single industry standard for digital identity, leading to a “primordial soup of incompatible digital ID schemes.”
“Some say that having a national identity scheme is an act of sovereignty,” he told Think Digital Partners. “The only place where common standards are created on a cross-national level is the European Union. The rest of the world has been seeing a rise in national sentiment. There is no international authority on such matters, so every state created its own concept, tailored to its specific needs and wants. The consequence is a primordial soup of incompatible digital ID schemes, with interoperability addressed as a vision more than a practical requirement.”
Conversely, the US is “a wonderful manifestation of a democratic-pluralistic approach,” said Friedman.
“There, federal and state initiatives live side by side with commercial initiatives. Apple and Google are designing their digital wallets to be compatible with the mDL standard; others are building digital credentials on W3C. In Europe, they have eIDAS; India and Australia have their own standards as well, and the problem goes on and on.”
Government-created hurdles
The identity verification firm’s exec said it’s not just incompatible standards that make it difficult to verify credentials – there are hurdles created by governments, too.
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“Everybody, especially cross-border service providers, are going to have difficulty using digital IDs to verify peoples’ identity. The lack of technical know-how, along with operational issues, are going to make digital ID implementation a complete headache,” he said.
Friedman maintained that businesses are faced with a difficult dilemma: either decline customer transactions, leading to revenue loss, or accept them and risk potential ID fraud.
“This situation is well-exploited by fraudsters who recognise the chaos and capitalise on the opportunity it presents,” he said.
‘Tower of Babylon’ of standards
In terms of a possible solution, Friedman said much thought has been invested in security and process mechanics, but regulators and implementers now need to address the user experience, especially in regard to less tech-savvy consumers.
“In this Tower of Babylon of standards, interoperability is crucial. Beyond that, the next key stakeholders are identity verification automation providers like us, who need to create sufficiently flexible solutions to accommodate all these different standards and modes of operation,” he said.
