Governments worldwide are realising the importance and benefits of digital identity because vaccination certificates, identity checks in financial services, and the potential of the Metaverse are driving the technology, according to GlobalData, a data and analytics company.
Definition: ‘Digital Identity’ is a collection of online information about a person, an organisation, or a machine, which, when grouped, can provide a digital representation of that entity.
Digital identity systems apply to both human and machine identities. A person’s identity is what most people recognise. But it is not the only one. For example, a corporation has an identity, like a device or machine.
China leads the world in digital identity with the most advanced social credit and surveillance systems. Estonia and the Nordic countries are well aware of the benefits of digital identities, as is India, with its National Identification System, Aadhaar. There is a push in the EU to give its citizens digital identity credentials that can be accessed via digital wallets. Australia and New Zealand are moving towards legislation that allows this.
GlobalData’s latest report, ’Digital Identity’, reveals that the theme, which was previously slow to take off owing to countries having different agendas, is now taking centre stage.
David Bicknell, Principal Analyst, Thematic Intelligence team at GlobalData, comments,“Digital identity’s time is now. There are many possible use cases, from financial services to tracking and managing identities in the metaverse. COVID-19 has been an important driver. It took a global pandemic for governments to recognise that vaccination certificates on smartphones enabling foreign travel was the killer app that digital identity could deliver, and people could use, even if they might not recognise it as digital identity.”
UK citizens will soon be able to access government services online through One Login, but the US has lacked consistency on digital identity due to a patchwork of state initiatives.
Bicknell continues: “Implementation of anti-money laundering (AML) and knows your customer (KYC) identity checks by financial services regulators has catalysed the adoption of digital identity. The EU’s plans to give all its citizens digital identity credentials accessible from digital wallets by 2024 will be a key driver in Europe.”
Meanwhile, big technology companies are joining in, say GlobalData. For example, Apple now supports mobile US driving licenses, and Microsoft has embraced decentralised digital IDs.
Digital identity is finding use cases in online purchases, accessing government services, posting on social media, and collaboration instances, such as temporary workers and contractors needing urgent access to mission-critical applications. In the future, digital ID verification processes will cover users’ journeys through the metaverse.
Bicknell adds, “It is clear that decentralised identities will help deliver an identity revolution. The potential of decentralised identities ensures privacy protection and promises frictionless onboarding experiences, efficient know your customer (KYC) compliance, and drastic reductions in identity theft rates.”
“The next few years will see extensive development around workload identities, which include applications and services, and device identities, which include mobile devices, Internet of Things (IoT) and operational technology (OT) devices, and desktop computers,” concludes Bicknell.