Yoti introduces Guardian Council to maintain trust handling biometrics and personal information

Consumers are becoming less trusting of major technology companies, according to Yoti and as a company interacting with biometrics and personal data, Yoti has introduced the Guardian Council to ensure its adherence to the company’s core principles and ethical framework.

The Guardian Council was previously noted when Yoti endorsed the Biometrics Institute’s ethical principles for biometrics earlier this year. The council currently has three seats, though Yoti plans to grow it to between eight and ten, according to the blog post introducing them. In addition to quarterly meetings, they have ad hoc communication to deal with specific issues as they arise. They hold an ex-officio position at Yoti board meetings to hold the company to account, and they are expected to be proactive and vocal to quickly identify and correct and mistakes. The council also ensures that Yoti follows the B Corp charter. The minutes of the council’s quarterly meetings are available on Yoti’s website.

Council members are chosen through nomination by existing members, and “a Yoti community vote,” according to the blog post. They are experts in their chosen fields, with a history of supporting social enterprise or development, and the company says they are fully transparent about their professional and personal achievements.

Yoti’s Guardian Council currently includes Renata Avila, who has a background in legal representation for victims of genocide in Guatemala, as well as research and policy advocacy on surveillance, open internet principles and transparency. It also includes Doc Searls of Harvard University and the University of California Santa Barbara, and serial entrepreneur and Dgen founder Gavin Starks.

The council have discussed adapting Yoti for humanitarian purposes, and how to approach the Principles for Identification for Sustainable Development led by the World Bank. Council meeting minutes indicate that the company will not fully endorse those principles, but should keep abreast of them, and consider involvement with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Working Groups on standards to maintain an indirect involvement in such initiatives.

The World Bank’s ID4D section has a major presence at ID4Africa 2019 this week in Johannesburg.

Article Topics

best practices  |  biometric data  |  biometrics  |  data protection  |  ethics  |  Yoti