Use cases growing for converged physical and digital identity verification

Use cases for converged physical and digital identity are expanding around the world, due to new regulations, technologies and business processes, attendees heard during a webinar hosted by Inverid on Wednesday.

CRO Wil Janssen began the webinar on “Combining Physical and Digital IDV” by explaining the growth in in use cases for such processes, like digital travel credentials, preregistration for access control, and the EU’s biometric Entry-Exit System (EES). Janssen was joined by Gareth Williams, general secretary and chief strategic partnership officer at Eurostar, and Koos Verhave, CCO AMP Group, for the webinar.

Eurostar’s interest in bringing together physical and digital identity comes from managing border crossings with expanding requirements in rail stations that are “very much space-constrained,” Willams says.

Eurostar intends to manage this convergence with its SmartCheck application, which was built with face biometrics and liveness detection from iProov and Inverid partner Entrust’s IDVaaS technology. It represents “the first time that a biometric-only application has gone live in that way in general use at the UK border,” he says.

When a passenger tells the system “I’m ready to travel” with a click on their smartphone, their face biometric template is loaded into the database the podium uses for comparison, and checked as they walk past it. The verified data is then passed to Eurostar’s and the UK border system, and deleted.

Williams describes preregistration as a necessary capability for passing 9 to 11 million passengers per year through check-in, ticketing, security, UK exit controls and EU entry control processes “in an area the size of three tennis courts.” Anything that can be done before arriving at this constrained area “is incredibly valuable.”

SmartCheck was developed and launched in part to show authorities like the European Commission that the biometric technology is mature and holds the potential to improve a system fraught with challenges. He believes its introduction has helped move the conversation towards the launch of a mobile app for EES processing.

The SmartCheck app is being well received, with 96 percent of users saying they will use it again. The biggest barrier to SmartCheck adoption, Williams says, is that people don’t realize the impact of the easier processes until they have experienced it.

If the political and cultural environment will allow it, he argues, the same kind of system can be used for other applications.

Indeed, a pilot of the Quick Border app at Arlanda airport in Sweden in collaboration with Frontex, with Inverid providing identity document verification and facial verification orchestration, has yielded positive results, Janssen says.

Logistics for health, consumer goods and document issuance

A range of other sectors rely on converged physical and digital identity services provided by AMP Group.

AMP Group provides delivery services for the Dutch healthcare industry, high value electronics and ID documents, all of which involve identity verification to make sure important items are taken from and delivered to the right entity or person.

Verhave emphasizes the importance of the chain of custody in these kinds of deliveries, and also of digital signing to confirm the receipt of the sensitive material.

He also emphasizes the importance of choice, from allowing customers to use iProov biometrics for remote verification to in-person verification, which is chosen by about 7.5 percent of AMP Group customers. Another 5 percent, roughly, end up having to use in-person verification due to technical issues or business rules, with Verhave providing the example for the latter of a difference in the name the user’s name is spelled in ID documents and the order form. The conversion rate would be even higher if not for the high level of security required.

While the technology would easily support face biometric checks at the door, AMP Group has found that those customers choosing in-person verification tend to find having their photo taken by a delivery person invasive, so manual checks are used.

Article Topics

digital ID  |  digital identity  |  identity document  |  identity verification  |  Inverid  |  remote verification