The state is using its digital identity law as a model for having individuals, not governments, control their personal data, Utah’s chief privacy officer said.

Digital identities raise important issues in the payments realm because such personal information is often tied to transactions, particularly in e-commerce. That's becoming an increasingly key issue as more fintechs aim to use that data to personalize services.

Currently, 21 states and Puerto Rico issue digital IDs, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

Utah enacted what it called the first digital ID “bill of rights” law earlier this year, which created a “state-endorsed digital identity” program aimed at giving people control of their identity data.

“What good is digital identity if nothing in it says that somebody can't use it to do surveillance pricing in a way that harms you, or they can't track and surveil every single usage of it?” said Bramwell, who is also director of the Utah Office of Data Privacy.

States need a governance framework for IDs because there are “168 million different digital identities in use across different platforms in the U.S. lacking these rules of the road,” he said.

Ajay Gupta, chief digital transformation officer for the California Department of Motor Vehicles, was also scheduled to appear at the panel. Ultimately, he didn’t appear, with Kerber pointing to travel complications.

Utah is working toward an ID system that would render a person’s data, if it’s breached, virtually useless for fraud and impersonation, because the criminal doesn’t have access to the ID credentials, he said.

Source link