In the first week of March, IT analyst Gartner published its updated Market Guide for Identity Proofing and Affirmation. The report, written by Akif Khan, features ReadID and underlines a number of challenges customers face in choosing identity proofing solutions. Challenges that NFC-based identity verification with ReadID can often solve. 
Gartner's market guide does not advise or promote specific vendors but gives clear indications of where the market is heading and how to evaluate different solutions. First of all, they clearly state that only document-centric identity proofing can be regarded as identity verification. One needs to assume that all personal identifiable information is known, as stolen identity information is for sale in many obscure places. Data-centric identity verification cannot be regarded as identity verification and can merely play in role in identity affirmation.
"... checking of personally identifiable information alone is wholly deficient today." Akif Khan, Gartner
Still, Gartner sees persistent use of data-centric identity verification for high assurance use cases, where this should only be done on a document-centric based technology. NFC should be considered for these use cases, according to Kahn.
Identity Proofing Vendor Selection
With document-centric identity proofing comes a next challenge: vendor selection is increasingly difficult, as accuracy metrics are hard to get and to compare in the market. Basically, they state that accuracy claims of optical document verification solutions are doubtful and not standardised, which makes comparison impossible. The machine learning element in the technologies makes it hard to prove accuracy as well, given the lack of standardised tests. Also, proofs-of-concept are often difficult due to contracting and integration efforts, making it hard to do a low-cost trial.
For ReadID and NFC-based identity verification, accuracy is a simple metric: the chip technology and the ICAO standard guarantees 100% correct identity document verification. ReadID can even detect exact copies of chipped identity documents using cloning detection.
For ReadID accuracy is a simple metric: we guarantee 100% correct verification of chipped identity documents.
The need for Orchestration
Another interesting observation by Gartner is the need for orchestration to combine identity proofing with user authentication across the customer journey, which we discussed in an earlier blog.
Also, portable digital identities are regarded as the future, Khan mentions. We see this as well with the eIDAS revision in Europe, standardising identity wallets. The digital identity inside your identity document is an ideal way to add identity to these wallets. Datakeeper is one of the solutions using ReadID moving in that direction.
Learn more
Interested to learn more about the Gartner Market Guide for Identity Proofing and Affirmation? Schedule an appointment with one of our experts to discuss this or drop me a line! We look forward to interesting discussions.
