How can we make peer-to-peer transactions safer, better, faster?
This week Consumers International invited consumer organisations, standard setters, businesses, innovators and civil society from across Europe, America, ASIA and Australia to explore how consumers could have safer on and offline peer-to-peer interactions. The event was sponsored by Yoti, a London-based technology company specialising in digital identity.
(Image created at the event by Josie Ford)
When we buy something second-hand online, when we rent out our apartment through a website, how do we know the deal we think we’re getting is the real thing? Well the answer is, most the time we can’t tell. The internet gives us the chance to be who we want online, and whilst this can be liberating, it can make interactions between strangers risky.
Some of the time this can just be annoying: a wasted date with someone who looks nothing like their photos. Sometimes it can have a financial cost: the plumber you hired to do your bathroom turns out to be unqualified and you need to redo the work. Sometimes it can be your safety at risk: when you’re getting into a stranger’s car or inviting them into your home.
As well as risks to the individual, these issues could also erode trust in peer-to-peer services in general. So, how do we find a better way for peer-to-peer services to know people online really are who they say they are?
At the event this week, Consumers International brought together different perspectives from parts of the globe and different sectors gave us a 360-degree view of challenges, and solutions and where particular tensions lie. Things such as, how to balance what an individual might want, for example anonymity on social media, and what society needs, i.e. people to be held accountable for their behaviour online.
Participants also found out more about new innovations in Digital ID provision, which could be a game-changer in terms of how we verify our identity online. We are seeing new tools that link up physical proof you are who you say you are with official documents, thus creating a verified, portable Digital ID. With this ID you can log onto websites without having to re-enter information each time. It makes things easier, more legitimate and helps you control the amount of information you are giving people. For example, if a website only needs to know your age, your digital ID can simply confirm that you are over 18, as opposed to having to provide your full date of birth.
This led onto discussions about where accountability for decisions made based on someone’s identity lies, and how to enable control of data and redress when things go wrong.
Key conclusions had resonance for bigger digital issues: we need much better ways for consumers to communicate what they want to regulators and policy makers, and regulators and business need to find a balance where one isn’t hampering the other. It was noted that online identity will play a key part in the next wave of digital evolution and it is vital we are all prepared. A central conclusion from the event was that there is a need for a global governance architecture as this aspect of digitalisation takes off.