OpenID Foundation’s new eKYC and Identity Assurance Working Group Launched

The OpenID Foundation’s new working group eKYC and Identity Assurance Working Group (WG) is looking at how to extend the benefits of the widely adopted OpenID Connect specification.

The objective is to add a standard way of expressing how identity data was asserted when it was created. For example, this will allow relying parties to understand whether an attribute (like name) was set up based on passport, drivers license or Facebook. From a technical perspective there will be a new verified claims structure added that provides more information about the “verified claims” such as how, when, according to what rules, and using what evidence.

This comes amid a critical reassessment of eKYC and Identity Assurance WG driven by new technical capabilities and new policy and regulatory requirements. Technical expert, Takahiko Kawasaki, has written on how we got here in the Japanese context of identity assurance and OpenID Connect in the eKYC and Identity Assurance WG and how the draft specification could be implemented.

Real world implementations of eKYC to date have been project specific. The status quo is marked by barriers between the domains and little availability of off-the-shelf solutions, reducing the overall efficiency and agility benefits.

It seems that while there is a lot of work defining eKYC and Identity assurance from a policy and regulatory perspective the technical standard to implement solutions in an interoperable way is catching up.

The Working Group’s leadership and growing membership reflect intense interest from public and private sector organizations worldwide. The initiative was launched on the 8th of January and discussed face-to-face at the OpenID Foundation Summit in Tokyo last week, with a similar event in London on the 17th of February. The regular business of developing the technical specification and working out how it fits in with the many jurisdictions is managed via the weekly working group meetings. If you have an interest please join and contribute:

Further reading that demonstrates the global nature of this topic can be found via these links below: