Privado ID lands deal with telco giant Telefónica’s business unit

Privacy-focused digital identity platform Privado ID has sealed a deal with Telefónica Tech, the digital transformation business unit of one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, Spain-based Telefónica Group.

Telefónica Tech is hoping the collaboration will help put the company at the frontlines of eIDAS2-compliant digital identity just as the EU is preparing to roll out the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet project. The company works with a wide range of public and private clients, including Heathrow Airport, Levan Center Cyber Range, the Spanish General State Attorney Office and brewery group Mahou San Miguel.

“Telefónica Tech’s size and depth of experience will go a long way to bring corporate clients into the Privado ID ecosystem,” says David Schwartz, Privado I’s CEO and co-founder.

Privado ID will serve as a system integrator and help develop verifiable credential use cases for Telefónica Tech. One of the first proofs-of-concept Privado ID will be developing for Telefónica Tech is age verification.

Telefónica Tech also plans to issue verifiable credentials for accreditations, such as those from academic qualifications courses, and make them available to users through digital wallets. Other use cases include digital national identities, e-signature solutions and privacy-preserving loyalty programs, the companies say in a release.

Privado ID’s products will be integrated into Telefónica Tech’s managed blockchain service TrustOS.

“Telefónica Tech’s experience and expertise in both blockchain-based solutions and systems integration puts us in a unique position to drive the future of digital identity,” says the company’s Global Head of Blockchain and Web3 José Luis Núñez.

Previously known as Polygon ID, Privado ID is a spinoff from Polygon Labs, the main development team behind Polygon. It offers zero-knowledge (ZK) and self-sovereign identity (SSI) technology and has introduced a new digital wallet in July.

Privado ID looks toward Europe

Although more countries are looking at self-sovereign identity (SSI) approaches to digital identity, aligning decentralized methods with existing regulations still presents a challenge, Privado.ID noted in a recent panel discussion on the European digital identity project.

The two main approaches in digital ID in Europe are the top-down approach, highlighted by eiDAS, and the decentralized approach, favored by web3 advocates. The latter focuses on flexible, user-defined identities.

Listen more about the discussion on digital IDs in Europe here.

Article Topics

age verification  |  decentralized ID  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  Privado ID  |  verifiable credentials