The Digital Identity Blog

As with most start-up technology firms, Verif-y was founded with a clear mission to solve a pressing problem – to protect the identity of individuals, as well as protect our partners from fraud. Along the way, we have found that we can solve many challenges in various sectors with our reliable, accurate, and fast identity verification solutions. In doing so, we help our partners eliminate paper processes (thereby reducing the risk of identity theft that comes with storing Personally Identifiable Information for years on paper documents). 

Biometrics and liveness detection are two key technologies for identity verification and authentication. While biometrics are widely used for ensuring secure access to devices, applications, and sensitive information, the need for liveness detection has been on the rise due to hackers attempting to circumvent the biometrics authentication using ‘spoofing’. There are key differences between biometrics and liveness detection that are often missed, or simply mistaken.

Digital identity has come a long way in the past decade, particularly within the financial industry. Ten years ago, most financial institutions relied on traditional methods of identification, such as presenting a physical driver's license or passport when opening a bank account or applying for a loan. While these methods were effective, they were also time-consuming and prone to fraud.

Liveness is quickly becoming an essential part of the identity verification process. However, before delving into what liveness is and the benefits associated with it, we need to take a step back and look at the larger picture. Why is liveness needed when we have comprehensive identity verification solutions already? How is fraud detection limited? Only then will we truly understand the need for liveness detection in our solutions. 

In today’s data-driven world, data breaches are becoming more commonplace and can affect hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people at a time. As digital transformation has increased the sheer amount of data moving, data privacy risks and the amount of data breaches have consequently risen due to attackers exploiting the data-dependencies of our daily lives.

What’s going on with data privacy legislation in the US?

Answer: There’s a lot going on. Besides the whispers of federal data privacy legislation in the future, there’s a lot in the works for a majority of states in the US. If you know about California and CCPA, think along those lines - but for every state, each with their own intricacies and penalties.

As part of Verif-y’s ongoing efforts to educate organizations and individuals about digital identity, we thought it might be useful to dedicate a post to the current challenges related to the protection of Personally Identifiable Information (PII), as well as provide suggestions on potential mitigation strategies.