Canada
Non-profits Open Identity Exchange (OIX) and the Digital ID Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC) are working together to advance global digital interoperability.
The two organisations will explore how different country-based policies related to identity management, verification, security, data privacy innovation and approaches to digital identity assurance can be compared and analysed so that more rapid progress can be made towards global digital ID interoperability through alignment of policy or acceptance of policy differences.
The collaboration will focus on advancing methods for participants in one framework to accept identity verification and digital credentials verified through another trust framework based on a mixture of policy acceptance and technology adaption. DIACC and OIX will explore equivalency and interoperability processes, identify potential alignments, new standards required, and gaps that may need to be addressed, and highlight use cases that can be facilitated through interoperability across digital ecosystems. Within this work, they will explore methods to describe common features of jurisdictional and sectoral trust frameworks, and share insights.
Germany
Identity verification platform provider IDnow has launched two new e-signature solutions to the market. The company said InstantSign empowers financial businesses to innovate friction-heavy and lengthy signing processes, such as loan contracts, by way of a reusable identity, while eID eSign enables users to verify their identity and digitally sign contracts with the help of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.
Existing solutions traditionally either require a new identity verification before a Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) can be issued or the identification needs to be handled by the financial institution. IDnow said InstantSign removes these obligations, allowing users who have already performed Anti-Money-Laundering (AML)-compliant identity verification at onboarding to digitally sign contracts at a qualified level, with no additional integrations required and in accordance with European eIDAS regulations.
Additionally, eID eSign allows end customers to verify their identity and digitally sign contracts remotely. In less than a minute, users can verify themselves by utilising compliant and secure NFC technology, for a QES that is the legal equivalent to a wet-ink signature on the Level of Assurance (LoA) High. IDnow’s eID eSign solution currently works with the German ID card, residence permit or EU citizen card, using a secure, compliant NFC chip readout of these documents.
Europe
Ninety-three percent of European consumers are worried about digital identity theft with increasing cyberattacks (39 percent) and the rise of AI (28 percent) given as key reasons, according to Okta’s 2024 European Customer Identity survey.
United States
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has announced that Credence ID, Hushmesh, Netis d.o.o., Procivis, SpruceID, and Ubiqu have each won a government contract to develop technologies that protect the privacy of individuals using digital versions of credentials issued for immigration and travel.
These digital credential users, including immigrants and travellers, could eventually store their information in privacy-enhanced digital wallets.
DHS provided the awards through its Privacy Preserving Digital Credential Wallets & Verifiers solicitation. The requirements included ensuring that DHS digital credential wallets and verifiers incorporated open, global standards that are not proprietary.
Each awardee is eligible for up to $1.7 million across four SVIP phases.
Australia
The federal government has removed regulations that would have mandated data from the nation’s digital identity scheme be stored exclusively within Australia.
The Australian Government Digital Identity System (AGDIS), set to be expanded following the enactment of landmark legislation earlier this year, will no longer require data localisation, InnovationAus reports. One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts issued a dissenting report with 10 recommendations, including that the Bills should be amended to remove the ability for identity data to be held outside Australia.
Instead, the Albanese government has gone in the opposite direction with draft rules issued by the Department of Finance, reports Biometric Update.
The change follows lobbying efforts by major players in the technology and banking industries, who argued that such restrictions would impose significant operational and financial burdens, limiting the efficiency and scalability of the digital identity framework.
Global
Most organisations globally anticipate a notable reduction in identity fraud after implementing digital IDs, according to a new study, The New Imperative: Digital IDs, by Regula.
However, the research also highlights varying expectations across different regions regarding the extent of a decrease in fraudulent activity.
Forrester Consulting, commissioned by Regula to conduct the 2024 study, points out promising global expectations for fraud reduction through the implementation of digital IDs within organisations’ identity verification (IDV) processes. Globally, the largest group of respondents, 27 percent, expects a reduction in fraud of 20 percent to 29 percent. Additionally, 25 percent foresee a decrease in fraud of 30 percent to 39 percent, while 14 percent expect a reduction of 40 percent to 49 percent.
North America shows higher expectations, with 36 percent of organisations expecting a 20 percent to 29 percent reduction in fraud, surpassing the global rate. However, a more cautious 18 percent anticipate a 30 percent to 39 percent reduction, indicating a sceptical outlook compared to the global average.
Europe aligns closely with global trends, with 26 percent of respondents expecting a 20 percent to 29 percent reduction in fraud. Slightly higher hopes are seen as 16 percent foresee a 40 percent to 49 percent reduction in fraud.
The Middle East presents a more varied perspective. Only 18 percent anticipate a 20 percent to 29 percent reduction, indicating a conservative outlook. Conversely, a significant 35 percent expect a 30 percent to 39 percent reduction in fraud, showcasing a higher level of confidence in the impact of digital IDs.
United States
Leaders from Utah Valley University’s Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy and the Center for National Security Studies have announced the Elections Project, a pilot programme designed to give candidates seeking one of Utah’s four congressional seats and the open senate seat the ability to authenticate their digital identities for free.
“They would be able to verify through a chain of custody that content actually originated from them and wasn’t altered, intercepted or created by a third-party actor,” Brandon Amacher, director of the Emerging Tech Policy Lab at UVU, told StateScoop in an interview.
Using a verification tool from Provo start-up SureMark Digital Identity Services, political campaigns for the Utah congressional candidates will be able to verify whether election material depicting their candidate’s image or voice originated from their operation or from a third party —allowing them to track deepfake incidents and potentially stop misinformation from spreading.
Armenia, Georgia and Moldova
Public agencies in Armenia, Georgia and Moldova have successfully tested connecting to foreign digital services using their national digital IDs as part of EU4Digital’s cross-border electronic identification (eID) pilot activities between the Eastern Partnership countries.
The pilot project involved the implementation of the eIDAS-node software, which is used by European Union Member States for cross-border authentication. The updated EUDI regulation, which builds on eIDAS, aims to facilitate digital transactions across the EU.
The initiative emulates the EU’s model but has been adapted to meet local needs and capabilities. The pilots test the ability of digital ID-holders to access digital services in another country.
United Kingdom
Just 25 percent of businesses felt that the candidate experience was a priority when it comes to identity checks, says background screening firm, Sterling. Accuracy was cited as the most critical by 44 percent of respondents, though just 13 percent said fraud protection was key.
According to Sterling, failure to consider how the process resonates with individuals could lead to higher dropout rates, particularly at a time when its data also revealed that more than a third (35 percent) of businesses plan to add digital identity to all background checks.
United Kingdom
Also, in the UK, close to nine in ten people (87.4 percent) are concerned about deepfakes affecting election results, according to new research published by The Alan Turing Institute.
A similar proportion (91.8 percent) are also concerned about the broader spread of deepfakes, with particular concerns about their potential impact on online child sexual abuse material, increasing distrust in information and the manipulation of public opinion, based on a nationally representative survey of 1403 people living in the UK.
The survey results also showed that nearly half of all respondents (49.3 percent) reported seeing non-harmful video deepfakes created for educational or entertainment purposes. Whereas, on average, 15 percent of people have been exposed to harmful deepfakes, including deepfake pornography, frauds, and scams as well as other potentially harmful content such as health or religious misinformation or propaganda.
When the researchers specifically asked about people’s exposure to common targets of deepfakes, they found that 50.2 percent had seen a deepfake of a celebrity online, compared with 34.1 percent having seen one featuring a politician.
New Zealand
New Zealand’s digital trust framework has gone live. The framework, the enabling legislation for which went into effect on July 1, is intended to give New Zealanders additional protection from scammers and phishers, and to make it easier for users to verify their identity with digital credentials housed on their smartphone in order to access services or prove their age.
