
Yesterday was the second edition of the IDentity.Next (un)conference, and also the second time Novay putted an innovation in the area of digital identity in the spotlight by awarding it with the Novay Digital Identity Award. Congratulations to Edentiti, and its founder Kevin Cox!!!
Edentiti is an Australian started-up that does online identity verification. What I personally like most about Edentiti is that they have a very pragmatic approach to identity verification which exploits a range of existing online databases and previously established identities. They provide increasing levels of trustworthiness of the identity verification, with increase in trust means more hassle for the user (and probably more cost for the service provider) but for many online services a lower level of trustworthiness is already good enough. And it all cases, the service provider doesn’t have to do the identity verification himself, and the user is in control how his identity is verified. A ‘trick’ they use is that users can verify their identity by proving that they have existing relationships with organizations. For more details, check out this webpage from the greenID verification service that they provide together with a partner.
The photo with this blog post is the award itself. The artist is Alexandra Veneman (from Ommen in NL, same of the 2010 award). The wave pattern symbolizes that identity if off all times and all areas. The I and the D of course stand for identity. She used the color purple from the Novay logo.
I copied the official announcement of the award below.
Edentiti wins Novay Digital Identity Award!
The Hague, November 9, 2011 – At the Identity.Next’11 conference today, the Australian Edentiti has won the Novay Digital Identity Award for the best new concept or product in the field of digital identity. Edentiti provides online identity verification by checking information
from various online data sources, and does so under the control of the end user.
Identity verification is the process of verifying if someone is who he or
she claims to be. It can be used to prevent identity theft, for age
verification where the purchase of alcohol or gambling is concerned and for several other reasons. What the jury found particularly appealing about Edentiti is the efficient
and innovative manner in which they rely on existing online identities that a
user has, and use these as a basis for identity proofing for new online
services. In the system Edentiti offers,
individuals can verify their identity by proving they have existing
relationships with organizations. Proof is obtained by the individual using
the Privacy Principle that says that individuals can ask any organization
that might hold personal information on them “Do you have any information
about me? Yes or No?”. The number and quality of the “Yes” relationships
determine the trust in the verification. Edentiti is also provided through Deloitte Digital under the brand name greenID, addressing Anti-Money Laundering/Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) legislation.
Hermen van der Lugt, director of research institute Novay and chairman of the jury: “It is easier for end-users and less expensive for online businesses than
traditional face-to-face identity verification approaches. Additionally, Edentiti lets the individual control the whole process of identity
verification, which is a big plus, considering the privacy
sensitivity.”
Edentiti has an approach and business model that allows for incremental growth: in number of users, in number of
customers and in the level of trustworthiness of the identity verification. The jury believes that their
approach has the potential to be expanded to other countries through
partnerships. Organizations which use the system, include Australia Post, the Australian Superannuation Fund
and the National Australia Bank. More on Edentiti’s approach can be found at www.edentiti.com.
Apart from Edentiti, three more organizations were nominated for the award. Qiy (www.qiy.com) is a Dutch personal data store initiative that provides a secure environment in which a user controls which companies can access his or her information. WAYF (www.wayf.dk), a Danish identity federation, connects over 90 service providers with over 130 identity providers in education, libraries, health care and government (including the NewLog-in national authentication system). WAYF pioneered and contributed to open source with, amongst others, a user consent module, real-time calculation of economic benefits of the federation and a federation administration interface. tiQR (www.tiqr.org) is an open-source and standards-based authentication solution from SURFnet. It uses a mobile phone to scan a QR code that is presented by a webpage, thereby implementing two-factor authentication that is very user friendly.
The award is part of the IDentity.Next’11 conference in The Hague, organized by the IDentity.Next foundation that focuses on developments in digital identity. With the award, IDentity.Next and research based ICT consultancy Novay want to recognize and support new developments and innovations that are shaping the future of digital identity. Co-organizer of the conference is EEMA, Europe’s leading independent, non-profit e-Identity & Security Association. The conference brings together experts, professionals and industrial parties to discuss the latest developments in the field of digital identity. More information about the award and the jury is available at www.identitynext.eu.