What is digital ID?
Digital ID can form the foundation of a host of applications in many aspects of an individual’s life, work, and social interactions.
Unlike a paper-based ID such as most driver’s licenses and passports, a digital ID is a form of identification that can be authenticated remotely over digital channels. A digital ID could be issued by a national or local government, by a consortium of private or nonprofit organizations, or by an individual entity. What’s more, a digital ID can use a variety of technologies to perform digital authentication, ranging from the use of biometric data to passwords, PINs, or smart devices and security tokens.
Video: What is digital ID?
Our new report takes a close look at the opportunity of digital ID for individuals and institutions, specifically examining how “good” digital ID can be a key to inclusive growth.
But what does it mean to have “good” digital ID? In short, good digital ID requires these four attributes:
1. It’s verified and authenticated to a high degree of assurance
High-assurance digital ID meets both government and private-sector institutions’ standards for initial registration and subsequent acceptance for a multitude of important civic and economic uses, such as gaining access to education, opening a bank account, and establishing credentials for a job. High-assurance authentication maintains these same standards each time the digital ID is authenticated. This attribute does not rely on any particular underlying technology. A range of credentials could be used to achieve unique high assurance authentication and verification, including biometrics, passwords, QR codes, and smart devices with identity information embedded in them. [1]
2. It’s unique.
With a unique digital ID, an individual has only one identity within a system, and every system identity corresponds to only one individual. This is not characteristic of most social media identities today, for example.
3. It’s established with individual consent
Consent means that individuals knowingly register for and use the digital ID with knowledge of what personal data will be captured and how they will be used.
4. It protects user privacy and ensures control over personal data
Good digital ID has built-in safeguards to ensure privacy and security while also giving users access to their personal data, decision rights over who has access to that data, with transparency into who has accessed it.
Our understanding of good ID was informed by extensive consultations with our research collaboration partners Omidyar Network, the asdasd Open Society Foundations , and the The Rockefeller Foundation. We also conducted in-depth discussions on the opportunities and challenges associated with digital ID with experts from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Center for Global Development, iSPIRT, the UN Development Programme , the World Bank Group’s ID4D initiative, and the World Economic Forum.
Digital ID can form the foundation of a host of applications in many aspects of an individual’s life, work, and social interactions. The potentially pervasive nature of digital ID makes it akin to dual use technologies — like nuclear energy and GPS — that are designed to generate benefit but are also capable of being used for harmful or undesirable purposes.
For example, a government might misuse digital ID programs by deploying them for political and social control, while a private-sector firm might misuse digital ID for commercial gain by influencing consumers in ways that they do not understand or desire. The nature of this trade-off for information technology broadly is explored in a range of academic literature.
In our report, we focus on the potential of good digital ID to create value. The attributes of good ID, including high assurance and consent-based creation and use, promote trust and protect privacy. The design and governance of
digital ID programs should incorporate these attributes and guard against the potential for misuse, to avoid outcomes contrary to the best interests of users.
Download our full report, “Digital ID: A key to inclusive growth” to learn about how good ID could unlock economic value equivalent to 3 to 13 percent of GDP in 2030, with just over half of the potential economic value potentially accruing to individuals.
- Verification means to check that an individual’s underlying information establishes his or her identity and occurs during initial registration of a digital ID or updating of an individual’s information in the ID system. Authentication means the process of validating an identity previously established during the registration process and occurs when an individual uses his or her ID with requesting parties.
