From online grocery shopping to online bill-pay to using streaming services, the line is blurred between our digital and physical lives. And when COVID-19 drove us all to find alternatives to in-person transactions, our digital transformation journey accelerated further. In fact, many of us turned to telehealth services, sharing our most private information online. We want these things badly enough — and we trust the organization on the other end of the transaction enough — that we surrender those valuable identifiers. In the wrong hands, this could conceivably ruin us. Yet, we’re willing to tolerate this risk for the sake of simplicity and convenience.

As we give up more control over our personal information, we leave ourselves vulnerable to various forms of theft and fraud. Even in incredibly polarized times, this is something everyone can agree on. So, what do we need to create a more secure identity?

The answer is decentralized identity — an emerging model that gives individuals full ownership and control of every aspect of their identity. With decentralized identity, your personally identifiable information would be encrypted and protected with digital keys used to confirm identity when, where, and with whom you choose − all without exposing your identity’s most sensitive elements.

This concept is picking up steam globally, but there is much work that needs to be done to make it a reality for all. For starters, there are too many competing standards and approaches to digital identity so it will take quite a bit of time, resources and funds to realize the full potential of any decentralized identity effort on a global scale. For more on this, read this blog from my colleagues Jenn Markey and Shelley Bryen.

Secondly, organizational adoption is another potential hurdle. Businesses may be hesitant to adopt technology that reduces their access to customer data, which in recent decades has been sold, combined, correlated and analyzed for marketing purposes. But less sharing and better control of personal data is decidedly good for the consumer. And with every industry now firmly in the age of customer-centricity, what’s good for the consumer is, in the long run, what’s good for business.

This is why I am supportive of the intent behind many newly proposed consumer and citizen privacy protection legislations across the United States, including in my home state of Washington. What’s central to all of these proposals is trust – trust that our most personal and sensitive data is protected. After all, our identity is what makes us who we are as individuals and should be valued and protected. We should own this very personal information regardless of where it sits, and we should have the right to withdraw consent to hold it, use it and share it.

To learn more about the concept of decentralized identity, read this blog from my colleague Greg Wetmore.

The post Our identity is deeply personal. Let’s protect it. appeared first on Entrust Blog.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Entrust Blog authored by Harini Gokul. Read the original post at: https://www.entrust.com/blog/2023/03/our-identity-is-deeply-personal-lets-protect-it/