Recommended: Paradigm Shift: Biometrics And The Blockchain Will Replace Paper Passports Sooner Than You Think
(forbes.com)
Biometrics and blockchain are the keys to the future of traveler identification.
GETTY
Crossing international borders without a physical passport may become a reality for some travelers in less than a year.
On Wednesday, the World Economic Forum and the governments of Canada and the Netherlands launched a pilot program for paperless travel between the two countries at Montreal's largest airport.
The new initiative, called Known Traveller Digital Identity (KTDI), is the first platform to use a traveler-managed digital identity for international paperless travel, giving travelers control over when and how their personal data is shared.
The identity data normally stored on a chip on a passport is encrypted and securely stored in a digital wallet on a traveler's mobile device.
Whereas traditional ID systems are managed by centralized authorities, KTDI is based on the blockchain — specifically, Linux's Hyperledger Indy, a distributed ledger purpose-built for decentralized identity.
This is the secret sauce behind the paradigm shift toward a system where travelers — not government agencies or travel brands — control access to their personal data.
"We're all wildly frustrated by data hacks, data breaches, our identities being stolen — and that's largely a result of where our identity data is stored today," says David Treat, a managing director and global blockchain lead at Accenture, the technology advisory partner on the KTDI project.
"The excitement around digital identity underpinned by blockchain and biometrics is that there is now a solution pattern crystallizing where users can be in control of their own data," says Treat. "They can decide with whom they want to share it, and for how long, and revoke that access at a later point."
Right now, our personal data is stored many siloed data structures surrounded by supposedly secure perimeters. But if hackers manage to break into them — as they frequently do — they get all the data.
Every time you book a plane ticket, pass through an airport security checkpoint, or reserve a stay at a hotel, your personal data ends up being stored somewhere.
By the end of a trip, your information might wind up in dozens of different siloed data stores, where it might remain indefinitely. "Travelers have no control over it.
They are essentially handing over a set of data and they have very little visibility as to what happens to it after that," says Treat.
With KTDI, a traveler might give an airline — or, eventually, a hotel or rental car company — access to specific pieces of personal information for a finite amount of time.
When the transaction is finished, the access is revoked."It's very different from today's world where an airline or hotel will accumulate data over time and hold on to it, and create this big honey pot of information," says Treat.
Instead, the philosophy behind KTDI is more transactional, where information is stored for a user-approved period of time. "When it's no longer needed, it's then no longer stored," says Treat.
So what might a journey might look like for a traveler using KTDI in the future?To get started, you would download a mobile wallet, enroll for the first time, and establish your profile.
Then, in advance of an international flight, you might decide to share your personal information with border authorities and airlines. Now the airport and airline are expecting you.
Once you arrive at the airport, you can go through the security checkpoint and board the plane using biometrics to confirm your identity, without any need for a physical passport. After your flight, you might decide to revoke access to your personal data from the airline.
Meanwhile, over time, a tamper-proof digital ledger would be created through the accumulation of authorized transactions by trusted partners such as border agencies and airlines.
This establishes a "known traveler status," which is a reusable digital identity that makes it possible for more streamlined future interactions with governments, airlines and other partners.
This is not just a theoretical concept. Along with the governments of Canada and the Netherlands, partners — including Air Canada, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol — will be testing the KTDI initiative throughout 2019, with the first end-to-end paperless journey expected to take place in early 2020.
GETTY
Crossing international borders without a physical passport may become a reality for some travelers in less than a year.
On Wednesday, the World Economic Forum and the governments of Canada and the Netherlands launched a pilot program for paperless travel between the two countries at Montreal's largest airport.
The new initiative, called Known Traveller Digital Identity (KTDI), is the first platform to use a traveler-managed digital identity for international paperless travel, giving travelers control over when and how their personal data is shared.
The identity data normally stored on a chip on a passport is encrypted and securely stored in a digital wallet on a traveler's mobile device.
Whereas traditional ID systems are managed by centralized authorities, KTDI is based on the blockchain — specifically, Linux's Hyperledger Indy, a distributed ledger purpose-built for decentralized identity.
This is the secret sauce behind the paradigm shift toward a system where travelers — not government agencies or travel brands — control access to their personal data.
"We're all wildly frustrated by data hacks, data breaches, our identities being stolen — and that's largely a result of where our identity data is stored today," says David Treat, a managing director and global blockchain lead at Accenture, the technology advisory partner on the KTDI project.
"The excitement around digital identity underpinned by blockchain and biometrics is that there is now a solution pattern crystallizing where users can be in control of their own data," says Treat. "They can decide with whom they want to share it, and for how long, and revoke that access at a later point."
Right now, our personal data is stored many siloed data structures surrounded by supposedly secure perimeters. But if hackers manage to break into them — as they frequently do — they get all the data.
Every time you book a plane ticket, pass through an airport security checkpoint, or reserve a stay at a hotel, your personal data ends up being stored somewhere.
By the end of a trip, your information might wind up in dozens of different siloed data stores, where it might remain indefinitely. "Travelers have no control over it.
They are essentially handing over a set of data and they have very little visibility as to what happens to it after that," says Treat.
With KTDI, a traveler might give an airline — or, eventually, a hotel or rental car company — access to specific pieces of personal information for a finite amount of time.
When the transaction is finished, the access is revoked."It's very different from today's world where an airline or hotel will accumulate data over time and hold on to it, and create this big honey pot of information," says Treat.
Instead, the philosophy behind KTDI is more transactional, where information is stored for a user-approved period of time. "When it's no longer needed, it's then no longer stored," says Treat.
So what might a journey might look like for a traveler using KTDI in the future?To get started, you would download a mobile wallet, enroll for the first time, and establish your profile.
Then, in advance of an international flight, you might decide to share your personal information with border authorities and airlines. Now the airport and airline are expecting you.
Once you arrive at the airport, you can go through the security checkpoint and board the plane using biometrics to confirm your identity, without any need for a physical passport. After your flight, you might decide to revoke access to your personal data from the airline.
Meanwhile, over time, a tamper-proof digital ledger would be created through the accumulation of authorized transactions by trusted partners such as border agencies and airlines.
This establishes a "known traveler status," which is a reusable digital identity that makes it possible for more streamlined future interactions with governments, airlines and other partners.
This is not just a theoretical concept. Along with the governments of Canada and the Netherlands, partners — including Air Canada, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol — will be testing the KTDI initiative throughout 2019, with the first end-to-end paperless journey expected to take place in early 2020.
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Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst The future is coming very fast. We wish these new developments would help world citizens to travel safer, faster and with more data security. There are dystopia issues here too. Imagine the global companies storing your ID (like, anyway, are doing now), and giving you social credit for it, so you can be classified to be "safe for travelling" or "not fit for travel" dure to your social credit linked to your ID. Let´s work for a real decentralised society where data is owned by us, and not by companies or governments.