Today we celebrate the launch of our new website to showcase the latest output of the Mobile Identity Programme as well as exciting developments across our global Operator community. This re-launch presents us with the opportunity to sit back and reflect on how far the world has come since the Programme was seeded just 18 months ago.
Within a very short period of time, digital identity has risen to become a key strategic issue for mobile operators. In today’s growing digital economy, where the burdensome fixed-internet methods of yesteryear continue to infuriate consumers with their registration processes and painfully slow procedures (password and username combinations are a leftover remnant from the early 1990s and woefully insecure), finding secure methods for establishing and authenticating identity is becoming a central issue for both businesses and individuals.
Furthermore, as public debates over the NSA’s Prism project provoke renewed concerns over internet and communications privacy, the time for establishing newer, better and more secure ways for verifying the identity of individuals and controlling how one’s identity and information is used online, has never been better. Nevertheless, as some of the startling statistics on this webpage show, many consumers – and many businesses – do not yet recognise the importance of such procedures for protecting and managing their personal information.
The GSMA Mobile Identity Programme team has been keeping close to the positive changes happening around the world with regards to digital identity management and authentication.
My colleague, Janne, who has joined us from Elisa in Finland – one of the first operators to successfully launch a fully interoperable mobile signature solution known as Mobile ID, writes about how mobile is swiftly becoming the medium of choice for everything from authenticating transactions to opening doors via a digital key. My colleague, Marta, Regulatory and Policy Director for the Mobile Identity Programme, talks about some of the key initiatives taking place in Europe, the US and the UK with regards to mobile authentication and trust services, and provides an overview for why mobile is an important medium for enhancing social inclusion in today’s digital world. Our Technical Guru, David, has developed a paper looking at the existing landscape of digital identity services, including the encroaching role of online players in this space* (for GSMA members only – please contact Mathew Clements for a copy)
Over the past year, we’ve identified, analysed and helped to foster a number of mobile identity solutions deployed by mobile operators, who make up some of the most important pioneers in this space.
In Turkey, Turkcell’s MobilImza solution enables corporate customers to sign contracts and other business documents using their mobile, and allows bank customers to withdraw money from an ATM without a bank card. In Sri Lanka, Dialog’s Connect service lets customers log in to their favourite websites and shop online safely without having to remember dozens of passwords. In Uganda and Senegal, parents in rural areas are able to obtain a birth certificate for their children – and with it the assurance that their child will not be excluded from an education or vital healthcare service – all through a simple mobile birth registration procedure. Customers of KDDI in Japan can login to websites using their au ID and add purchases such as games, content and other physical goods, to their phone bill with a simple click, while employees in the UAE are entering buildings and secure premises with a quick NFC swipe of their phones, which have their ID cards placed safely in the SIM. Estonian citizens using Mobile-ID can submit their tax returns online, apply for a personal loan or register a new company within minutes without touching a single sheet of paper or visiting a single office, all simply by signing via the legally binding signature on their mobile phone. All these are just a sample of the mobile identity solutions live today around the world. Read about them in more detail on our Resources page.
What if we imagined a world where everyday procedures such as these were simplified to the point of one single PIN code, or one single permission button, where we never had to remember a single password again but can be sure that our transactions and confidential documents are transmitted safely? What if we imagined a world where all your loyalty cards, shopping coupons, house keys and gym membership tokens could be housed in your mobile and used with a simple contactless touch? This world exists – it’s happening now. Mobile can be – and is – at the heart of digital identity.