Mastercard, Samsung partner to safeguard digital identities

Dive Brief:

Mastercard and Samsung said in a press release that the two companies would team up to help consumers "conveniently and securely verify their digital identity on the mobile devices they use every day."
Through the global digital identity service, customers will be able to access and prove their digital identities on and offline, according to the release. Consumers will also be able to use their digital identification to complete routine tasks such as verifying their age for 21 and up venues, entering office buildings, ordering prescription medications or proving their credit history during financial transactions like opening a bank account or renting an apartment, a company spokesperson told Retail Dive in an email.
The service will "make it quicker and more convenient for users to register for new services," the spokesperson continued. It will remove the need for users to continually type out personal information or go through authentication processes while providing identification verification to reduce fraud and identity theft.

Dive Insight:

Right now consumers need to manage numerous passwords while they attempt to keep their identity and data safe. That ongoing need to give out personal data to third parties increases risk.

The partnership between Mastercard and Samsung comes at a time when more online retailers and financial services firms are grappling with growing fraud in e-commerce transactions. The move also comes after Mastercard published its "Restoring Trust in a Digital World" report in March, which detailed the company's views on restoring trust and strengthening the relationship between what is online and what is offline.

Perhaps collaborations between financial firms and mobile phone companies could help curb the digital fraud that threatens to rob retailers of billions. Mobile fraud rose 30% last year, growing to $700 to $800 million globally, according to a report from the AppsFlyer State of Mobile App Install Fraud. Plus, retailers could lose roughly $130 billion in revenue on fraudulent card-not-present transactions by 2023 if they don't step up their fraud protection strategy, according to a report from Juniper Research.

Mastercard stated that the overarching goal is to "change the way we establish identity in an online world" with the objective of moving from systems that require many passwords to generating a reusable digital identity.