This article was originally published on Feb. 20, 2020.
Canadians place significant importance on protecting their identity, with eight in ten describing it as one of their most valuable assets and over half indicating it is more important to protect their identity than their money. While our lives have become increasingly digital, our identity documents, such as passports and driver’s licences, remain physical in nature. This is creating security challenges and is inconvenient. It’s why Interac believes that building digital ID platforms that are anchored in convenience, control over personal information, and security will be key to unlocking the full potential of Canada’s digital economy.
Supporting the development of digital ID solutions for Canadians’ increasingly digital lives was a prime motivation for the acquisition of security pioneer 2Keys by Interac. In this episode of our monthly film series on innovation, we talk with both Shawn Heeley, VP Customer Solutions at 2Keys, and Neil Butters, AVP Digital ID and Innovation at Interac, about the larger picture. What will digital identification mean for Canadians? What principles should be followed in developing systems that the whole country can adopt? What kind of a wider ecosystem will digital ID depend on for success?
Shawn and Neil address these and other questions, and in doing so, they sketch in more detail the outlines of a system that will see digital ID embedded in capabilities that are already ubiquitous and trusted by Canadians – ensuring that everyone can access services and participate in the digital economy more safely and conveniently than ever before.
