Noteworthy Information

Individuals Simple read

eIDAS and the European Digital Identity Wallet

In 2021 the European Commission announced the European digital identity wallet. This article explains the basic concepts, highlights the significance of this development and provides an overview of the status quo.

Developers Simple read

What Do NFTs Do Well?

NFTs are a powerful technology for digital ownership and value transfer, but verifiable credentials are better for digital identity

Business & Government Intermediate read

Decentralized Identity & Government (Video: 56min)

Up until recently, the majority of digital identity systems have been federated, where a small group of “identity providers” supply individuals with a digital identity that can be used to access other websites and services within the federation. Now we’re seeing the shift to decentralized identity solutions and open ecosystems based on verifiable credentials, where anyone can participate, issue, and verify.

Business & Government Intermediate read

Electronic Signature Laws & Regulations - The European Union

Also to be remembered with eIDAS, it’s not only about electronic identification, but heavily on digital signing. A good analysis including ‘failures’, derogations and national deviations is available here.

Developers Simple read

Trusted Third Parties vs Self-Sovereign Identity

An option to overcome the privacy and security problems of Trusted Third Parties and make the data more usable for its holders is Self-Sovereign Identity.

Individuals Intermediate read

Your Face Is, or Will Be, Your Boarding Pass

Tech-driven changes are coming fast and furiously to airports, including advancements in biometrics that verify identity and shorten security procedures for those passengers who opt into the programs.

Developers Simple read

Internet Identity Workshop #33

Here we will overview a few of the topics covered at IIW33 in Oct 2021, and review of the strong and weak signals discernible in the collective discussion.

Individuals Intermediate read

Statement of Support for Decentralized Identifiers

A DIF & ToIP joint statement of support for the Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v1.0 specification becoming a W3C Standard.

Business & Government Simple read

Biometric-based DID

With added security feature in DIDs enabled by Humanode, even if the keys are compromised, not all is lost. It is not clear from the blog post though how those additional security features work and what measures are taken to secure biometric identification...

Individuals Simple read

Microsoft Account Goes Passwordless

Anyone with a Microsoft account can now remove their password from the account entirely to enable better security.
"For the past couple of years we've been saying that the future is passwordless, and today I am excited to announce the next step in that vision," Microsoft wrote - learn more here.

Individuals Intermediate read

Apple Secures First States To Support Digital Driver's Licenses, But Privacy Questions Linger

Apple's plan to digitize your wallet is slowly taking shape. What started with boarding passes and venue tickets later became credit cards, subway tickets, and student IDs. Next on Apple's list to digitize are driver's licenses and state IDs, which it plans to support in its iOS 15 update expected out later this year.

Developers Advanced read

Privacy & Identity protection in mobile Driving License ecosystems (PDF, 51 pages)

The non-profit Kantara Initiative association has released a report addressing concerns about digital identity and privacy concerning mobile drivers’ licenses.

Individuals Intermediate read

Why the Shift to Machine-Readable Humans Demands Better Digital ID Governance

Mobile passes, QR codes and other digital credentials are increasingly required to access all manner of venues, activities and experiences in the physical world. Yet, despite our increasing exposure through digital identification, we have few laws or even norms to adequately govern these systems.

[Intermediate] Amazon Looks to Ramp Up Biometric Payments With Promotional Offer

Amazon’s naked payments system is now being used at 50 locations in the US, and the company is looking to get more customers signed up by offering a $10 credit incentive.

The company first unveiled the Amazon One last autumn. It’s essentially a payment terminal with a built-in biometric palm scanner. A customer who links a payment account to their palm biometrics can make a purchase simply by waving their hand over the device.

Developers Intermediate read

Biometric Onboarding for Apple’s Mobile ID

The iPhone’s incoming mobile ID feature will use selfie biometrics for identity verification, suggests code uncovered by 9to5Mac. The news indicates that Apple will be even more directly in competition with other major pioneers of mobile ID solutions.

The mobile ID feature was first announced by Apple during its Worldwide Developer Conference in June of this year, when the company revealed that it planned to let iPhone users add virtual versions of their driver’s licenses to the Apple Wallet app after the iOS 15 operating system is launched. The company also indicated that it’s working with the Transportation Security Administration to get the virtual ID approved for use as an official identity document at airports.

[Intermediate] Apple's new logon tech

Apple has begun testing passkeys, a new authentication technology it says are as easy to use as passwords but vastly more secure.

[Intermediate] European Digital Identity

The European Digital Identity will be available to EU citizens, residents, and businesses who want to identify themselves or provide confirmation of certain personal information. It can be used for both online and offline public and private services across the EU. Every EU citizen and resident in the Union will be able to use a personal digital wallet.

[Intermediate] Your digital identity has three layers, and you can only protect one of them

Your online profile is less a reflection of you than a caricature. It is shaped by technology companies and advertisers who make key decisions based on their interpretation of seemingly benign data points.

Business & Government Advanced read

Revision of the eIDAS Regulation–European Digital Identity

With eIDAS, the EU has laid the foundations and a predictable legal framework for people, companies (in particular SMEs) and public administrations to safely access services and carry out transactions online and across border. Despite undisputed achievements, the potential of electronic identification and authentication under eIDAS remains underexploited.

[Intermediate] Thinking of DID? KERI On

Work under the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) hood continues on Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs): Key Event Receipt Infrastructure to expand the reach of DIDs

Business & Government Intermediate read

The end of the identity workaround

The way people are tracked online has been a cat-and-mouse game between the biggest browsers and the ad industry for years. Every time the industry found a way to claw its way back from the inventory blackouts caused by Google and Apple blocking cookies, it was hit by another curveball.

[Advanced] Interoperability Guide - ID Proofing and Authentication

The OIX Interoperability Guide provides ‘how to’ guidance for anyone interested in assessing how different identity ecosystems interact. It sets out a clear, adaptable approach to assessing interoperability of identity proofing and authentication carried out in different regional or national trust frameworks.

[Intermediate] Principles of SSI - Sovrin

These foundational principles of SSI (available in 15 languages) are intended for use by any digital identity ecosystem. Any organization is welcomed to incorporate these principles into its digital identity ecosystem governance framework provided they are included in their entirety. The principles of SSI shall be limited only by official laws and regulations that apply in a relevant jurisdiction.

[Advanced] GLEIF Advances Digital Trust and Identity for Legal Entities Globally

Following a series of 2020 research initiatives, GLEIF (Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation) has invited stakeholders from across the digital economy to engage in a cross industry development program to create an ecosystem and credential governance framework, together with a technical supporting infrastructure, for a verifiable LEI (vLEI - verifiable Legal Entity Identifier), a digitally verifiable credential containing the LEI.

[Advanced] Making sense of the new common EU electronic ID

Say welcome to the EUeID - a GDPR-compliant verifiable credential of citizenship anywhere in the EU.

[Intermediate] Covid-19 spurs national plans to give citizens digital identities

MOSIP, an open-source platform developed in India, will be central to many of those efforts

Reimagining the Social Security Number

The optional nine-digit social security number (SSN) is at the core of every American’s administrative identity — and it is also a major attack vector for most kinds of financial fraud.

Apple Pay Was Not Disruptive But Apple ID Will Be

If your phone is going to replace your wallet, then someone needs to solve the identity problem.

Decentralized identity explained (Video: 3:14min)

This is the best explainer for SSI that I have seen to date.

Thailand’s Vision for Trusted Digital ID

Thailand wants to completely do away with physical identity cards, and instead replace them with a new digital ID system that will give people more control over what data they share. An interview with Dr Karndee Leopairote, Supervisory Board member of Thailand’s Electronic Transactions Development Agency.

The looming disaster of immunity passports and digital identity

Immunity Passports have become a much hyped tool to cope with this pandemic and the economic crisis. Essentially, with immunity passports those who are 'immune' to the virus would have some kind of certified document - whether physical or digital.

Relationships and Identity

A great post from Phil Windley on the importance of Self Sovereign/ Decentralised Identity in forming better digital relationships than we have at present.

Active and Passive Identifier

Active identifiers bring verifiability and passive identifiers bring immutability to a decentralised network.

eSSIF-Lab (Self Soverign Identity Solutions)

eSSIF-Lab is an EU-funded project and aims at advancing the broad uptake of Self-Sovereign Identities (SSI) as a next generation, open and trusted digital identity solution for faster and safer electronic transactions via the Internet and in real life.

Internet Identity Workshop

We have been at it for 15 years working to cultivate the space for the community who cares about how people can control their own digital identities come together and move the ball forward on all of our work.

The growth factors of self-sovereign identity

This article highlights and describes five aspects, which are crucial for the adoption of self-sovereign identity (SSI).

The Status of the Sovrin Foundation

The recent economic climate has forced the Sovrin Foundation to make some changes to our operations.

Zero trust architecture design principles

The design principles around peer DIDs and zero-knowledge proof verifiable credentials.

MyData Webinar #5: Identity in the Digital Era

Latest MyData webinar about Identity (presented by Phil Windley and Andres Kütt) in the Digital Era is now up at mydata.org/webinars and in MyData Global’s Youtube channel.

Humanitarian aid in the digital age

I testified yesterday at the UN on 'Humanitarian aid in the digital age'. I was anxious at coming with MyData principles (framed usually for more advanced economies) and trying to apply them to the humanitarian context. Nevertheless the discussion was extremely encouraging, and there was definitely response and even demand for the idea of a bridge on those issues.


Questions Asked

Can we nuance our mental model on DID control slightly?

The most important discussion regarding DIDs for everything is in full flow. If anyone has any firm thoughts on DID spec inclusion/exclusion of resource identifiers, speak now!


Tools
BigID

BigID aims to transform how enterprise protects and manage the privacy of personal data.

Electronic IDentification

e-Trust Services company, Identity Verification Solutions & Authentication Services for Digital Onboarding fully compliant with KYC, AML, eIDAS.

Findy

The Findy Cooperative is a public-private organisation that develops a general-purpose, shared, and secure verfiable data network — a way to ensure the authenticity of information required in e-services.

Mnemonic Identity

Images of toys, dolls, dogs and cats meeting any need of identity assurance in any demanding situations.

Trust :: Data

Developing privacy-preserving identity systems and safe distributed computation, enabling an Internet of Trusted Data.

Typing DNA

Protect user accounts with powerful typing biometrics analysis, accurately and passively. Available anywhere people type, with a flexible API and low-code integration.

Universal Resolver

A Universal Resolver is an identifier resolver that works with any decentralized identifier system, including Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs).