EBay and IDology Boost Authentication Efforts
EBay has joined the FIDO (Fast Identity Online) Alliance, a group that promotes the use of biometrics by consumers to prove their identity in e-commerce transactions and other online tasks. The online marketplace said it operates an open-source authentication server that conforms to FIDO standards, and added that it is the first e-commerce company to achieve FIDO certification.
EBay did not immediately detail what its FIDO membership might mean for its own authentication efforts except to say that it “hopes to further the adoption of this technology and welcomes contributors from across the alliance to help build the community.” FIDO says products it has certified have seen “early deployments” via such companies as PayPal, Samsung, Alipay and Google. A consumer could use a FIDO-certified technology to, for instance, authenticate herself via digital representations of her fingerprints.
The eBay news comes amid increased attention on customer authentication. At least week’s All Payments Expo in New Orleans, for instance, two of the eight entrants to the show’s Shark Tank—a replica of the TV series in which entrepreneurs seek investment—were firms offering solutions designed to reduce the risk of data breach and fraud. The winner of the APEX contest was a company called AuthenticID, which enables financial services providers and other clients to verify new account creators via photo.
Also driving home the point that authentication is hot, IDology today released its IDology Mobile Identity Spectrum and ExpectID Scan Onboard, which enables consumers to link their accounts to their mobile devices. “Once verified and an account is opened, the end user is associated with their mobile device via an IDology Mobile Identity with ExpectID Mobile,” an IDology spokesperson says. “This binds the customer to the device they are using and utilizes real-time mobile network operator data to monitor any change events associated with mobile devices—for example SIM card swaps, number ports and lost, stolen or new devices.”
The consumer uses the camera from a mobile phone or tablet to capture and verify the ID, he says. The ID is verified and the information from the ID is then used to pre-populate forms. “Once the scan is complete and the information is extracted from the ID the customer’s information is verified through ExpectID,” he says. “The identity information is reviewed through IDology’s fraud platform to check for fraud indicators.”
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