Microsoft And Accenture Team To Give Legal ID To Undocumented Individuals

Microsoft has teamed up with Accenture to provide legal digital identification to more than a billion people throughout the world who do not have any official documentation. During the second ID2020 summit in New York yesterday, both companies showed off a prototype version of this digital ID network, helping further the UN's plan to get legal ID in place for everyone around the globe.

The issue of undocumented individuals is a serious one, making it hard for people to prove who they are when seeking a variety of services, not to mention the difficulty it poses for travel between countries. Refugees in particular will be greatly helped by the development of this digital ID, enabling them to prove their identity even if their legal papers were destroyed or lost in a war or when fleeing a country.

The digital ID network is being developed by the aforementioned companies utilizing blockchain technology, the same used for tracking bitcoin, and it will help bring about the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goal. Speaking about this, Accenture's financial services practice managing director David Treat said, "Having a digital identity is a basic human right."

With this new digital ID platform, users will have access to their proof of identity regardless of where they are due to a connection between existing public and commercial record-keeping systems. Someone with a digital copy of a birth certificate on file with some record-keeping entity will be able to have that birth certificate accessed even if they no longer have the physical paper, for example.

SOURCE: Reuters