Not so long ago, a national ID card or electronic passport was all you needed to prove who you were. It's a bit more complex in today's digital world, where security requirements can ruin an otherwise hassle-free user experience. Forgetting your login details or password can be frustrating — but thankfully there is help in sight.

Have you ever forgotten your user ID or wasted time clicking on "forgot your password" to connect to an online service? How exactly are you expected to remember all your login details when you have multiple digital identities?

The growth of the Internet has brought an explosion in the number of digital identities we need to manage, and the use of pseudonyms on social media just makes matters worse. According to a report by the Norwegian Centre for Information Security (NorSIS), the average Internet user needs to juggle more than 20 digital identities to check their social media accounts, buy a pair of shoes, file their taxes and generally exist online.

Authentication is becoming the bugbear of the online citizen. Added to that is the question of privacy and personal data protection, because users obviously want to be sure they're not providing personal information to somebody who's just pretending to be a company or administration they trust. Likewise, companies and administrations need to be sure the person they're dealing with is the person they claim to be.

These are legitimate concerns in a world where identity theft has skyrocketed in recent times. According to the 2020 Thales Data Threat Report – Global Edition with research and analysis by IDC, nearly half of organisations experienced a breach or failed a compliance audit in the past year.

Little wonder that an estimated 2.7 billion Internet users are dissatisfied with their online experience!

So how can security requirements be reconciled with the hassle-free user experience our online citizens demand? How to make IDs trusted in a digital world?

A single, universal solution

The answer is Mobile ID. It's a single, universal, highly secure authentication solution that lets users access any of the online services proposed by e-commerce sites, banks, companies and public administrations.

First, to begin with, a digital ID is the technological link between a real person and its digital equivalent entity. It all starts with the gathering of electronically captured and stored identity attributes such as biographic and biometric data. Once the information provided is checked for authenticity thanks to identity verification mechanisms (e.g. facial recognition), a trusted Digital Identity exists –ready to be used for security-sensitive services.

Once this first step is done, users can now prove who they are in complete security, approve transactions and payments, even digitally sign documents, simply by using their mobile phone. All they need to do is enter their phone number as their ID, then click OK when the online service provider sends a notification to their phone, or type in a PIN code if additional security is required.

Developed by Thales for all types of smartphone, Mobile ID offers a number of important benefits. Users can use their PIN to authenticate themselves quickly and easily. This can be used for secure electronic banking, or civic mobile ID services. Online security is stronger and personal data is better protected. And the whole process is easy to use and causes minimum disruption.

For online service providers, procedures are simpler, higher transaction volumes are possible and the solution opens up opportunities to develop new services. And for mobile operators, it's quick and easy to deploy and can generate new revenue streams.

The hassle-free web experience you always wanted could be just a click away!