The Need for Good Digital ID is Universal
The ability to prove who you are is a fundamental and universal human right. Because we live in a digital era, we need a trusted and reliable way to do that both in the physical world and online.
We Need to Get Digital ID Right
Since 2016, ID2020 has advocated for ethical, privacy-protecting approaches to digital ID.
For the one in seven people globally who lacks a means to prove their identity, digital ID offers access to vital social services and enables them to exercise their rights as citizens and voters and participate in the modern economy. But doing digital ID right means protecting civil liberties and putting control over personal data back where it belongs...in the hands of the individual.
Every day, we rely on a variety of forms of identification to go about our lives: our driver’s license, passport, work badge and building access cards, debit and credit cards, transit passes, and more.
But technology is evolving at a blinding pace and many of the transactions that require identification are today being conducted digitally. From e-passports to digital wallets, online banking to social media accounts, these new forms of digital ID allow us to travel, conduct business, access financial and health records, stay connected, and much more.
While the move to digital ID has had many positive effects, it has been accompanied by countless challenges and setbacks, including large-scale data breaches affecting millions of people. Most of the current tools are archaic, insecure, lack appropriate privacy protections and commoditize our data. But that’s about to change and ID2020 is leading the charge.
We are businesses, nonprofits, governments and individuals...working in collaboration to ensure that the future of digital identity is, indeed, #goodID.
We refer to the core requirements of that digital ID as the four P’s:
Private
Only you control your own identity, what data is shared and with whom
Portable
Accessible anywhere you happen to be through multiple methods
Persistent
Lives with you from life to death
Personal
Unique to you and you only
Unpacking the Challenges
1.1 billion people worldwide live without a digital ID
Identity is vital for political, economic and social opportunity. But systems of identification are archaic, insecure, lack adequate privacy protection, and for over a billion people, inaccessible.
Identity data is outside of individual control
Today, most personal data is stored in silos. The more siloed and numerous your data becomes the less control you have over it.
Protections for privacy are insufficient
With tracking, targeting, and surveillance techniques becoming more sophisticated, you need better privacy protections for your data.
Identity is neither portable nor persistent
Data travels swiftly across time and space, often without your control.
Good digital ID is too important not to get right
For over a billion individuals worldwide, accessing basic good and services is difficult, if not impossible, due to a lack of recognized identification. With “good” digital identity, individuals could use credentials issued from a variety of different institutions in order to gain access to a variety of different services, while preserving privacy and security and maintaining control over their information.
A unique convergence of trends provides an unprecedented opportunity to make a coordinated, concerted push to provide digital ID to everyone.
