If you’re in the business of onboarding new employees or clients, chances are, you are familiar with the ID and identity verification process. it is a necessary and valuable step that ensures a compliant and secure onboarding process, especially for regulated industries, such as financial and government services.

The traditional identity verification process, however, can be time-consuming and manual, causing errors that can be costly for your company.

Fortunately, there is a solution. Digital ID verification can boost security, data protection, and accuracy for identity users in digital spaces, and in turn, save you money and time.

What is a digital ID?

For starters, let’s first define digital identity. It is an electronic version of a physical identity document, like a driving license or passport, stored on your mobile phone or laptop.

The electronic ID can include a variety of data like your address, age, or name. It is usually designed to make it a bit easier for users to prove who they claim to be while sharing less information with people, organizations, etc. So organizations can use this personal data to establish the identity of their clients.

In this digital era, fraudsters and cybercriminals have also become more experienced or sophisticated, seeing the doubling of digital opportunities.

Without a doubt, digital IDs and digital identity checks have become more important and prevalent.

Key benefits of digital ID

• Highly secure

A critical factor of using a digital ID system is its overall security. Digital identity systems are digitally encrypted and have passwords that only the customer can access. All the data stored (address, name, email, and more) in the digital ID usually includes personal information, which makes it highly secure.

• Meeting compliance requirements

Regulated industries like financial services need to meet KYC (know your customer) rules and conduct CDD (customer due diligence).

The law needs them to do this when getting into business-client relationships to prevent financial crimes such as money laundering.

• Improves efficiency

A digital ID system is designed to be highly efficient, meaning that it can help boost efficiency in the organization. For example, with digital ID systems, you can keep track of the workers who have or have not been given specific duties or tasks.

• Flexible accessibility

Digital ID systems like Google ID make it easier for you to access your personal data in just a few steps. You can log in to one site from another by simply entering your password or username without leaving the app window or the current website.

That makes it easier for customers to access their accounts in just one place. It also prevents users from logging in many times while attempting to access different parts of an application or site.

How to verify digital identities

There are many ways organizations can verify a user’s identity online. The best technique will encompass a variety of checks, including:

• Document verification
• Database checks (ID record check)
• Proof of address check
• Biometric passport verification
• Watchlist check
• Disclosure and Barring Service or DBS checks issued by DBS applications

Different digital identity solutions provide different levels of assurance. A method like biometric verification has proven effective in verifying users’ digital identities, for a number of reasons. For instance, it can help protect companies against synthetic fraud.

Digital identity allows people to unlock potential value and economic value and benefit as they interact with governments, companies, and other people in six roles: workers, consumers, microenterprises, beneficiaries and taxpayers, asset owners, and civically engaged people.

Benefits of the European Digital Identity

The European Digital Identity allows every European Union citizen to identify and authenticate himself or herself without the help of commercial identity providers. The eID can be used for:

• Opening bank accounts
• Public services like requesting medical or birth certificates
• Proving an individual’s age
• Filling tax records or returns
• Renting a vehicle using a digital driving license

You should know about the digital ID services trust framework, which will establish rules to protect the security and privacy of users’ data when it’s shared within a trusted environment.

The post office is among the first government-approved online identity providers that allow UK citizens to verify their identities with an app rather than physical documents when renting a property or applying for a job.