Applied Recognition brings biometric binding to Sovrin Foundation credentials

A partnership with Applied Recognition will allow the Sovrin Foundation to deliver biometric binding to enhance the privacy and security of its digital credentials and digital wallets, to tackle identity theft.

The biometric binding will be a standard feature of a new digital wallet produced by Sovrin, along with extensive interoperability across identity ecosystems, as part of the Foundation’s efforts to strengthen the protection of digital verifiable credentials, according to a joint statement.

Sovrin wants to launch a global standard digital wallet leveraging facial recognition to secure the wallet and the credentials, with biometric processing performed inside the wallet to reduce the risk of data leakage compared to in the cloud.

The non-profit Sovrin Foundation works on technology and infrastructure to support ‘Identity for All’ provided with Privacy by Design and Default. The wallet therefore is intended to support compliance with data protection regulations around the world including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

The advantages of biometric binding in terms of protecting consumers against identity theft, according to the companies, include the possibility for a credential issuer to verify the identity of a wallet owner using their government issued photo ID combined with Applied Recognition’s face biometrics before issuing the credential. Verifiable credentials can also be bound to the face of the owner in order to reduce risk of credential theft or spoofing, and providing stronger assurance to relying parties that the credential is being presented by the legitimate owner.

The digital wallet app is expected to be available on iOS and Android with support for five languages at launch.

Applied Recognition is focused on privacy-preserving biometric solutions, and says its technology is available for integration into any digital wallet, as they proliferate and are embraced by society.

Article Topics

Applied Recognition  |  biometrics  |  credentials  |  digital identity  |  facial recognition  |  identity verification  |  interoperability  |  privacy  |  Privacy by Design  |  Sovrin Foundation  |  verifiable credentials