Digital identity: fostering the new economy

Digital identity: fostering the new economy

As our lives become increasingly dependent on the Internet, building trust becomes vital to society. However, the old methods of reliable documentation and verification are no longer adequate: documents are forged; static data is hacked; and consumers continue to choose convenience over security. Hackers and malware remain an ever present threat and consumers should always use antivirus software. He closes his eyes and imagines Britain in 1939. Gearing up for a second world war, the country introduced conscription and the National Registration Bill, which requires all citizens to have an identity card. national at any time. A document, a piece of information, to verify that you are who you say you are.

About the author Gus Tomlinson is responsible for GBG group strategy. Fast forward 80 years, past multiple technological advances: the industrialization of fossil fuels; commercial aviation; smart grids and electricity storage; global telecommunications; and of course, the internet. The march of technology never stops, and now we are moving towards the post-digital life, living in smart cities and connected homes; working in the era of automation; cross-border travel and spending. These global changes have already radically changed the way we live. However, the ways we build trust and verify identity remain stuck in the past, mostly related to government databases like voter lists and private sector data sets like credit scores. It could be said that the Internet, which has become the dominant technology platform of our time, was built with no identity in mind.

A connected world

As the public and private sectors realize the power and potential of a connected world, more and more questions are being asked. How can you actually verify credit card processing, when the seller can't see the buyer? How can an organization know you are who you pretend to be when you sign up for a new online service? And as we build our lives around an increasingly complex Internet of Things (IoT), a sprawling platform that anonymizes and links our digital navigation paths, how do we build trust? Where is this taking us today? In a clear transition phase. The private sector is now walking the tightrope of balancing the endpoint experience and security, while the public sector is trying to keep pace and create governance that protects without hindering innovation. . Meanwhile, technology pioneers are building a new layer on our connected world: a layer of trusted global data that brings the concept of identity into this century and perpetuates it for the next. This evolution of identity management means that the data points we use and the way we use them will have to change radically to build trust in the digital economy. A wave of new approaches and data sources will be used to not only protect both sides of every online and offline interaction, but also to provide context around an individual's background and behavior. As our digital identity includes an increasingly rich set of contextual data points, organizations will be able to verify not only identity, but also authenticity, bringing a new kind of trust to online interactions and enabling them to instill due diligence in the data intelligence. Proving who you are with your biological characteristics is another next step we see in this evolution of identity. As the era of smartphones and wearable clothing makes technology more personal than ever, advances in the availability and reliability of biometric technologies, which measure unique physical characteristics such as an individual's face, fingerprint or behavioral biometrics: it will bring us much closer to the ability to verify the identity of almost anyone, anywhere in the world, at any time.

Beyond biometrics

Other emerging horizontal technologies will also become more and more widespread. Microservices linked by a platform approach will link disparate data and services together; static verification will feed "environmental" authentication in progress; distributed ledgers could become an effective way to decentralize ownership and balance confidentiality and expediency requirements; Machine learning (ML) and augmented intelligence will help organizations make faster and more accurate decisions on how best to identify their customers. That does not mean that there will be no risks either. The implementation of new verification technologies will not be transparent and the communication of their value will be essential. Law enforcement facial recognition pilots, for example, have sparked the kind of backlash we often see when disruptive technologies begin to set a “new standard” in business and everyday life. In this case, as our digital identity trails become fragmented and crime tracking becomes more complex, it is hard to imagine a future in which these technologies are not widely used. The private sector is already embracing new forms of identity verification for employee surveillance, benefiting consumers every day by checking their bank balance when ordering a food delivery, the services they provide. Its use is much more flexible, practical and safe for this. Obviously, through all of this transformation, we're going to see an ongoing debate about data privacy and an ongoing battle over data security. It will really take a combined effort to educate citizens on the fundamentals of data security and stay one step ahead of cybercriminals, ensuring that contextual and connected identity information is a secure layer in the new economy and our post world. -digital. .