First look: IN Groupe launches ‘inclusive’ SMS-based SSI birth registration at ID4Africa 2022

IN Groupe has revealed its inclusive SMS, biometrics and cloud-based birth registration that aims to empower civil registries as much as parents and their babies, explained Jean-Noël Malborougt, from the firm’s identity innovation unit, during a demo at the firm’s ID4Africa 2022 stand.

Called ID4Life, the new system can register a birth from just SMS messages from a simple mobile phone in chatbot-type conversations with the local, authorized birth registration and certification issuer, which could mean a maternity ward, civic center or civil register.

The parent first registers with the system which then calls the person to take a voice sample as a biometric registration marker of that parent. Future authentication requirements in the birth registration and certification process trigger outgoing calls to the parent.

The system begins creating verified credentials in a cloud-based wallet for the parent. A witness is needed to confirm that the birth took place. This could be a doctor, staff from the maternity ward, a village chief. They need to also be registered.

Interaction with the civil registry then creates a birth certificate and a cloud-based wallet for the baby. The infant will be able to add his or her own biometrics later in life (age depending on jurisdiction) and the parent consents to the child taking control. Only the parent can control the link between their cloud-based wallets.

If the users have a smartphone, there is a digital, self-sovereign identity wallet app which makes viewing and managing the verifiable credentials simpler. Yet when the birth certificate is needed, such as for school enrolment, the parent engages in an SMS exchange with the civil registry to give permissions for certain elements of their child’s identity to be shared with the education authority.

Malborougt explained that the ID4Life approach means that further verifiable credentials can be added to a user’s SSI cloud- or phone-based wallet, such as marriage.

The French firm recently launched Monaco’s digital ID system and is developing EU digital wallet capabilities for France.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  birth registration  |  civil registration  |  digital ID  |  digital wallets  |  ID4Africa  |  ID4Africa 2022  |  IN Groupe  |  legal identity  |  SDG 16.9  |  self-sovereign identity  |  verifiable credentials  |  voice biometrics