The Importance of Interoperability in Digital Identity

Our increasingly interconnected “global village” allows people to instantly communicate, trade, and work together across continents, transcending geographical barriers. Unlike conventional identities, digital identities offer a unique virtual representation of individuals, entities, and even objects. The very essence of this ‘global village’ thrives on the exchange of information, services, and experiences. However, the true power of this concept lies not solely in its existence but in its seamless interoperability across platforms, services, and borders.

Picture an internet where digital platforms easily recognize and respect your identity, without fragmented login methods or incompatibility getting in the way of services, interactions, and opportunities. These experiences are the promise and potential of interoperability in digital identity.

What Is Digital Identity?

Digital identity represents individuals, entities, or objects in the virtual world. It consists of personal attributes, credentials, and unique identifiers that set one entity apart from another. This identity is essential for accessing services, making online transactions, and engaging in digital interactions.

How Interoperability Makes Digital Identity More Secure and Convenient 

Interoperability is the capability of various systems, technologies, or entities to communicate, exchange data, and work together seamlessly. When we talk about digital identity, interoperability ensures that different identity systems integrate smoothly across multiple platforms, services, and regions.

With our current digital identity systems, you have to repeatedly register, sign up, and verify your identity to access different platforms and services. Internet users often find themselves repeatedly sharing and confirming the same personal information on various platforms. Since each platform has its unique data storage method, an individual might appear as distinct identities on different platforms, leading to redundant data storage.

Consequently, having identical data across numerous databases increases the vulnerability to potential cyberattacks. The lack of interoperability burdens users with having to remember and manage multiple sets of credentials for various online services. This results in a fragmented user experience, leading to frustration and potentially deterring users from fully engaging with digital services.

To fully benefit from interoperability in digital identity, we need to establish a solid framework. This framework should promote smooth communication, data sharing, and identity verification across a wide range of systems, platforms, and organizations.

5 Benefits of Interoperable Digital Identities 

There are a number of benefits to this seamless integration, including:

1. Enhanced User Experience:With interoperable digital identities, users can bid farewell to the hassle of managing multiple credentials for different services. This seamless approach streamlines logins, account access, and transactions, offering a smoother and more intuitive online journey.
2. Efficient Cross-Platform Access: Envision a world where a single set of credentials grants you access to government portals, healthcare services, and financial institutions. Interoperability makes this possible, eliminating repetitive registrations and verifications.
3. Efficient Services: Interoperability accelerates the data exchange process between service providers. This efficiency not only simplifies the onboarding process but also elevates the overall user interaction.
4. Privacy and Security: A robust, interoperable framework ensures that sensitive personal data is shared only with authorized parties, enhancing privacy. Reducing the number of stored credentials diminishes the risk of data breaches and identity theft.
5. Inclusive Digital Services: Interoperability paves the way for more inclusive digital services. Individuals who lack multiple accounts or struggle with managing various credentials can benefit from simplified access to essential online resources.

Examples of Interoperable Digital Identity at Work

1. Healthcare and Electronic Health Records (EHRs): In the healthcare sector, interoperability is vital in securely sharing patient information across different healthcare providers. Interoperable electronic health records (EHR) systems enable healthcare professionals to retrieve patient records quickly and accurately, improving patient care and reducing administrative burdens.
2. Sign in using other apps: Many websites and apps offer users the option to log in using their existing Facebook or Google accounts. This is achieved through federated identity, where Google or Facebook acts as an identity provider, and other services trust Google’s authentication. Users can seamlessly access multiple services without creating new accounts or remembering separate credentials.
3. E-Government Portals and Citizen IDs: In countries where governments provide digital services to citizens, interoperability is crucial. Citizens can access various government services using a single digital identity, from tax filing to healthcare information. This digital identity can be used across various government agencies, streamlining access and improving user experiences.
4. Cross-Border Digital Services: The electronic identification and trust services (eIDAS) regulation enables cross-border recognition of electronic identification methods in the European Union. This means that citizens of one EU country can use their national eID to access digital services in another EU country, such as signing contracts or accessing public services.

Single Sign-on (SSO)

Single Sign-On (SSO) streamlines and secures access to multiple websites, applications, or services using a single set of login credentials. Instead of managing separate usernames and passwords for each platform, SSO enables users to log in once with their primary credentials. This grants them effortless access to all interconnected services without the need for repetitive logins.

Imagine a scenario where a user needs to access various online services within an organization, such as email, file-sharing, project management, and customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Without SSO, the user would typically need to remember different usernames and passwords for each service. When users resort to weak or easily guessable passwords, this becomes inconvenient and raises security risks.

Through SSO, distinct services merge into a unified authentication system. As a result, users only need to authenticate once, and they are then able to seamlessly access all incorporated services without having to log in repeatedly. This integration leverages interoperability standards such as Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) or OpenID Connect.

For example, users initiating their workday within a company’s network can authenticate via SSO. Subsequently, as they navigate email, project management, or CRM systems throughout the day, they are spared from repeated login prompts. Interoperability ensures these services acknowledge the initial SSO authentication, forging a smooth and secure user experience. An organization can use SSO as part of a federated identity system or independently.

Federated Identity System 

Federated identity management is a concept in digital identity management that enables users to access multiple systems or applications using their existing identity credentials from a trusted identity provider (IdP).

An identity provider is a central authority that authenticates users and issues them digital credentials after successful authentication. This could be a company’s internal authentication system, a social media account (like Google or Facebook), or a specialized identity service. The IdP shares necessary identity attributes with the service providers (SPs). This allows users to access various services without needing separate login credentials for each.

Service providers are the platforms, websites, or applications that users want to access. These SPs rely on the IdP to authenticate users. Instead of maintaining their authentication systems, SPs trust the IdP’s authentication.

In order to share authentication and authorization information securely and standardized, different organizations or domains establish a trust relationship. SSO is often an integral part of federated identities.

In other words, federated identity lets you use the same login information to access different services or platforms. This works even if separate organizations run those services. It’s like having a universal passport that lets you enter other countries without needing separate visas for each.

Standardization and Protocols for Interoperable Digital Identity

Interoperability relies on the adoption of common standards and protocols that facilitate data exchange and communication. These standards define how identity attributes are formatted, encrypted, and transmitted between different systems. Some of these standards include:

1. SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language): SAML is an XML-based standard used for exchanging authentication and authorization data between identity providers (IdPs) and service providers (SPs). It enables single sign-on (SSO) and is widely used for enterprise and web-based applications.
2. OAuth (Open Authorization): OAuth is a framework that allows secure authorization of third-party applications without exposing user credentials.
3. OpenID Connect: this is an identity layer built on top of OAuth 2.0. It provides a standardized way for clients to request and receive identity information about users, including authentication and user profile data.
4. SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity Management): SCIM is a protocol that simplifies user provisioning and management across different systems. It is designed to standardize how user identities and attributes are managed in a federated environment.
5. W3C standards: This standard defines the format for issuing, presenting, and verifying digital credentials in an interoperable way across different systems and platforms.

User Consent Mechanisms 

Users’ consent, which refers to a person’s explicit permission to share particular identity attributes with various services or organizations, is crucial. Interoperable systems often include mechanisms that allow users to grant or revoke consent for sharing specific identity attributes with service providers. This empowers users to control their data and aligns with privacy regulations.

The Future of Digital Identity: Interoperable Decentralized Identity

Decentralized identity shifts the control of identity data from centralized entities to individuals. With this approach, users control their own identity information instead of one organization managing it. The identity information is stored securely, privately, and in a way that prevents tampering.

Interoperable decentralized identity is seen as the future of digital identity management. The goal is to ensure that various services, platforms, and organizations can access, share, and verify decentralized identity data. Interoperable decentralized identity empowers users to manage and share their identity attributes selectively. This allows individuals to control their digital footprint, enhance privacy, and build trust by only sharing relevant information.

This approach is often associated with technologies like Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI), verifiable credentials, and decentralized identifiers (DIDs).

Challenges for Interoperable Digital Identities

• Diverse Standards: Varied standards and protocols across platforms hinder seamless integration, necessitating efforts to establish common ground. Establishing common standards and protocols that all participating entities agree upon is complex.
• Complexity and Technical Barriers: Interoperable systems often involve complex technical integrations, especially when different systems use different technologies, data formats, or authentication methods. Ensuring seamless data exchange while maintaining security can be technically challenging.
• Privacy and Consent Concerns: Ensuring that users have control over their data is vital. Additionally, they should be able to provide informed consent when sharing specific attributes. This presents a significant challenge. Striking a balance between user control and service providers’ needs for specific data can be complex, especially when users interact with multiple platforms.
• Regulatory Landscape: Interoperable digital identity solutions must comply with various data protection, privacy, and identity verification regulations across different jurisdictions. Aligning these solutions with existing legal frameworks, such as GDPR or HIPAA, poses challenges in terms of data handling, consent management, and cross-border data transfers.
• Trust and Security: Building trust among different organizations and entities and maintaining data security during exchanges are critical to effective interoperability. Establishing governance models, agreements, and legal frameworks that define data sharing and management poses challenges, especially across borders and industries.

Conclusion

Digital identity forms the cornerstone of online interactions, enabling seamless digital landscape navigation. As we rely more on digital platforms and services, we cannot overstate the importance of interoperability in creating a unified and secure digital identity experience. Interoperability acts as the bridge connecting various platforms, ensuring smooth data flow while safeguarding control and privacy. Embracing interoperability empowers individuals with convenience, security, and freedom to engage fully in the digital realm.

Identity.com

We are pursuing a user-centric internet where users have control over their data. Interestingly, Web 3 and digital identity are excelling in these areas. More reason why Identity.com doesn’t take the back seat in contributing to this future via identity management systems and protocols. We also belong to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the standards body for the World Wide Web.

The work of Identity.com as a future-oriented company is helping many businesses by giving their customers a hassle-free identity verification process. Identity.com is an open-source ecosystem providing access to on-chain and secure identity verification. Our solutions improve the user experience and reduce onboarding friction through reusable and interoperable Gateway Passes. Please refer to our docs for more information about how we can help you with identity verification and general KYC processes.