MWC24 Barcelona Identity and Data Seminar catch up
Humanising digital identity: how the mobile industry boosts digital trust
At MWC24 Barcelona, 9 leading mobile identity professionals gathered at the Identity and Data Seminar to share their expert views with 130 attendees. The topic covered mobile authentication, mobile intelligence, European Digital Identity, and Open Gateway’s industry momentum.
The session started with a strong focus on mobile authentication. Nick Lane from Mobilesquared described how international SMS OTP volumes unexpectedly declined in 2023 as major brands explored alternatives for mobile authentication. The panel discussion began by looking at the evolution to a Passwordless future from the perspective of end-users. Paul McGuire, CEO of IDLayr, highlighted how turning the mobile number into a trusted digital identity credential delivers convenience and low friction to end-users, whilst also meeting the security and privacy goals of service providers.
Lee Kwang-Yong from Singtel, reminded the audience that mobile operators provide authentic first-party data. Singtel has embraced the standardisation approach of GSMA Open Gateway to expose MNO data and authentication via APIs and it simplifies workflow integration for enterprise customers. Panelists then discussed the regulatory landscape which is encouraging the emergence of alternative mobile authentication solutions. Christiaan Brand shared Google strong involvement in developing and promoting Passkey, as well as the benefits of combining complementary solutions such as Passkey with carrier-based identity. Panelists ventured different predictions about how soon Passwordless will become mainstream, but all recognized the appetite of the industry to explore new solutions.
Julia Faesser shared Mastercard implementation of Passwordless Checkout, which was built on the experience of optimizing Strong Customer Authentication in Europe. She later shared how Mastercard and the mobile industry could collaborate to enhance the assessment of transaction risk using mobile intelligence.
Finally, Agustin Diaz-Pines discussed the European Commission’s initiative to launch the European Digital Identity Wallet including the progress of defining and testing the wallet across public and private sector use cases. He described numerous opportunities for the mobile industry to collaborate in this upcoming ecosystem, emphasising the importance of finding the right partnerships, collaboration and business models. Opportunities included contributing mobile enablers, such as authentication, the mobile number itself and secure elements; leveraging mobile operators’ relationship with customers for wallet distribution and onboarding; and adopting the wallet in the industry’s own use cases.
Watch the video on demand now!