What Is Digital Identity? What Problems Can DI Solve, And Future Outlook

Most people believe that their identity consists of a passport, a driver’s license, and a birth certificate. Ten years ago, they would have been right. Today they are wrong. Digital Identity becomes more sophisticated as technologies improve.

However, there are more technological developments than ever. Why should you care about digital identities?

If you want to protect your identity from hackers, watch as people in developing countries open a bank account for the first time and take control of their personal information – digital identity is essential.

What Are 3 Of The Most Critical Problems That Digital Identity Can Solve?

1. Think about how your bank verifies your identity. They usually only need legal documents to do business with you. You can send and receive money, borrow, and borrow. I hope your identity is safe. Recently, however, we have seen more and more data attacks that reveal people’s identities. For example, when Equifax Bank was hacked, social security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, and even some of the driver’s license information of 143 million people were stolen.
2. Identity theft is not the only problem with legal identities. In developed countries, we take for granted how easy it is to obtain a driver’s license or passport. However, many developing countries do not have easy access to a formal identity, such as a passport. There are 1.2 billion people in developing countries who do not have a formal identity. It means that they cannot open a bank account, own land, or receive social assistance.
3. Data is more valuable than ever, so discerning investors are calling data a new asset class. Over the decade, we’ve made our data available to tech companies and banks for free. It was convenient for us, so we gave them permission and helped them get rich. We share our data and let companies use it however they want.

Before We See How Digital Identity Solves These Problems, We Need To Understand What A Digital Identity Is.

Most people consider their identity as a driver’s license, passport, and birth certificate. However, they are only one type of identity: your legal identity. We have three other types of identity that are becoming increasingly important. They will change the way we interact with the world.

These are the four types of identity we can use right now:

Legal Identity: passport, driver’s license and birth certificate. These are usually created and authenticated by a central authority such as a government.

Physical Identity: your fingerprints, your DNA, and your iris. The technology can use these measurements to identify you quickly and easily.

Electronic Identity: your social media profiles such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. These are created individually, but a private company stores your data.

Behavioral Identity: how it behaves, p. E.g. B. how he talks, how he walks and how he sends messages. As machines get smarter, they can increasingly recognize who we are through subtle actions.

We can see the concept of identity expanding. Our identities will no longer be limited to government-issued documents. We increasingly identify ourselves by our unique physical characteristics, online presence, and behavior.

Digital identity can include all four types of identity. It will be much more robust than our current legal identities. Digital identities will have many valuable uses, including the three problems identified above.

How Do We Solve The Three Problems?

1. Currently, Equifax customers whose data has hacked are at risk of identity theft. However, they would be much more secure with a digital identity that also uses physical, electronic, and behavioral identities. As hackers get more sophisticated, so can our identities.
2. What can do to grant formal identities to people in developing countries? In India they founded Aadhaar. You will give a 12-digit number that represents your biometric and geographic data. In a country where many people previously did not have a formal identity, 99% of the adult population does not have an identity that can use to withdraw cash from ATMs, conduct large transactions, and even verify for online education.
3. We have previously seen that in Europe, where the GDPR legislation that users are notified of a data breach and allows them to share their data. Digital identities can give people more control over their data. If we can control our identity, we can control our data. We can go from a convenience model to compensation. Data is valuable, digital identities will help people capture some of that value.

What Is The Future Of Digital Identity Like?

Digital identities will be our future. But it’s unclear how that future will play out. Will a central authority like a government control our digital identities? Or will it be decentralized and under the control of individuals through the use of technology like Blockchain?

Either way, startups will be at the center of this change. They will create technology that allows governments to control digital identities or blockchain technology that gives control to people.