Digital Identity adoption has increased, but has equality? | International Identity Day 2022

Digital identity has become more prominent in our lives, from using Facebook to log into third-party apps, to verifying your identity to access online government portals. Digital identity is often discussed as a method to help spread the fundamental right of both having and owning the proof of one’s identity. As we move past the COVID-19 pandemic that catapulted the world further down digital interconnectedness, it’s critical to reflect each year on how well we are doing in ensuring that each global citizen has a proof of identity.

Being part of a digital society often leads us to forget that inclusion is not just about diversity within the society among us, but about ensuring that indigenous or remote populations are able to provide proof of their identity to integrate into society and receive fundamental benefits. Simultaneously, digital reliance opens new vulnerabilities to identity theft. In 2021, records were broken for identity theft, up 23% over the previous all-time high reaffirming the need to protect the most vulnerable asset.

The Identity Day Campaign, led by ID4Africa, commemorates the UN Sustainable Development goal 16.9, which calls for the provision of legal identity for all by 2030. By designating September 16 as the International Day of Identity, the campaign seeks to ensure that all government authorities in all countries recognize that the proof of one’s identity is not only a fundamental right but also a necessity in the digital world that we live in.

As the Digital Identity market is projected to reach $20 Billion dollars in spend over the next five years, we must reflect on the three fundamentals in identity that we strive to commemorate:

• Inclusion: preventing identity exclusion by making identity more accessible

• Protection: reminding others to protect their identity appropriately

• Empowerment: ensuring people make the most use of their identity

Women In Identity is proud to support the International Identity Day campaign as a coalition partner.  It is Women in Identity’s mission to drive the digital identity industry to build identity solutions with diverse teams to promote universal access, which enables civic, social, and economic empowerment around the world, #ForAllByAll. Women In Identity strongly believes that there is the need for a global Identity Code of Conduct to address identity exclusion — being excluded from access to identification credentials — that subsequently leads to exclusion from financial services and products.

Written by Anna Sarnek