The expansion of internet services is making life easier. However, with this added convenience comes the risk of fraud and digital crime. This means there is a big incentive to verify the person using the device. Modern customers expect convenience and low wait times for any online service. Though perpetrators of identity theft and digital fraud are becoming more sophisticated. For these reasons, there is a growing demand for digital identity verification services.
A need for trust
In most situations, a person’s identity can be easily determined using records issued by the state. It usually includes a photo of the person combined with modern anti-counterfeit measures, like holographic printing. Government issued documents such as a passport, birth certificate, social security card, or driver’s license are good examples. However, the method of physical inspection is only useful when personal contact is possible. When companies need to confirm the identity of a remote person, this becomes a much bigger challenge.
What is it?
When communicating online, a person needs a method to easily prove who they are. The process of establishing your digital id to the organization your engaging with is electronic identity verification. In order to complete the verification process means the multiple system components involved are working well together. Hardware, smart devices, secure high-speed connectivity, and customized software work seamlessly making up a verification solution.
Verification systems make use of personal information such as name, date of birth, Social Security number, and address. So, many such solutions access public and private databases to confirm whether an individual is who they claim to be. All systems attempting to validate an individual’s identity relies heavily on the quality of data and the speed in which data can be exchanged.
Global Effort
Speed and accuracy levels are also impacted by the person’s country of origin. Lack of government id standards and interoperability continue to be challenges for large multinationals operating globally. But the future is promising. The UN and World Bank have joined up, working together to provide everyone on the planet with a digital identity by 2030. A trusted digital id opens opportunities for the vulnerable living in the world’s poorest economies.
Benefits
Easier
Scanning of documents and uploading selfie videos become commonplace, leading to globalized standards and user experience improvements.
Quicker
Shorter wait times for any online verification process to complete as souces become better supported by superior connectivity rates and metadata has international formatting standards applied
Cheaper
Service application fees reduced for consumers because the per person process costs are systematically pushed down by automation, standardization, and vendor competition
There are costs for using digital identity verification systems. However, it is more costly when opening your business up to intentional acts of fraud. Individuals pretending to be someone else have generated billions in global economic loss every year for decades now. Amazingly, cybercrime damages are predicted to be 6 trillion dollars by 2021.
More than protecting financial institutions from profit loss, here are some of the key benefits we expect to see maturing in the next few years.
- Faster approval speeds
- High accuracy rates
- Reduced identity theft
- Increased security
- Lower operations costs
- Better overall customer experience
Real World
A great example is how this tech can reduce government fraud, which impacts all citizens. Everyone benefits when it becomes much harder for an imposter to use a government number that belongs to a deceased individual. Additionally, legitimate recipients won’t have to stand in long lines to physically attend periodic verification meetings.
Get Help
Implementing online fraud prevention to protect your organization is a great idea. Thus, there is a growing demand for digital identity verification. But of course, there are technical and compliance hurdles to overcome. If this type of tech is not part of your core business, it is a good decision to seek outside help. Outsourcing means easier access to the best online security technologies available. Costs can be reduced by integrating SDKs and working with compliance aware experts. Leveraging an outside vendor is especially useful to SMBs. The need to facilitate online transactions is the same, but typically don’t have the internal resources to implement such systems. The goal is to see businesses make use of this technology while making it easier and cheaper for them to access.
Summary
In an ever more connected digital world, ID verification is a critical part of online security. Even if your company may not use it today, in the coming years, it will become as common as using username and password. Digital Identity Verification is an emerging technology that is expected to facilitate new and exciting new online services.
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