Pioneers of autonomous identities join Avast to build digital identity solutions for everyone
If I ask you where your online identity is, it may be difficult for you to list all the locations where your personal information is stored. For most of us, this number exceeds 150 accounts and passwords per person, and everything from contact information to very private health information exists in databases all over the world. The impact of this on downstream is well known. Over 37 billion records are lost every year. Identity fraud causes more than 700 billion U.S. dollars in losses every year, and there is no fraud for cards over 35 billion U.S. dollars. People have lost confidence in their security and privacy on the Internet-for good reason.
In the past 20 years, technology has developed rapidly-it has provided us with good services in many ways. But in addition to smartphones and social media, we have also designed a model where our private information is stored in countless central systems. Systems such as passwords, centralized databases, and electronic records have become more secure, but they still allow third parties to control our data.
At Avast, we envisioned a model in which you can control your digital identity. You can choose how, when, and with which organizations to share it. We all deserve digital freedom, but we cannot have freedom without trust. This is why all of us must be able to believe that people are what they call online people-and we can do this without unnecessarily exposing our personal information in the process.
Many people follow the progress made in the realm of autonomous identities. This model uses the advantages of decentralized finance to solve the online identity problem-how do we prove who we are?
This is why I am very happy to welcome Evernym to the Avast technology family. By creating solutions for self-sovereign identities-which helps build a layer of trust-Evernym will be a core part of Avast’s vision of empowering people to realize their true potential online. This work by their chief trust officer Drummond Reed and others in the company led to the development of innovative products and services based on decentralized digital credentials, which helped to build a more trustworthy online experience.
Evernym’s pioneering method allows people to have autonomy over their online status by keeping personal information outside of a central database. They won the “2021 Technology Pioneer Award” from the World Economic Forum, and are deeply rooted in industries such as tourism and finance. Their technology is the core of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Travel Pass and is also a solution for Bonifi’s MemberPass The program provides support to community financial institutions.
With Evernym’s underlying technology and the deep expertise that the team brings to Avast, we can accelerate our mission and reimagine how to build trust online through decentralized identity solutions. This is an incredibly exciting time to solve this problem. In terms of developing a safer and more fulfilling online experience for all of us, I can’t think of anything more important than solving. I am very happy to welcome the Evernym team to Avast.
