The national identity document is the element that allows to prove the identity of a citizen and hence a fundamental tool for the individuals to access all the services that a society offers. Unfortunately, the access to these documents is not uniform among the population due to varying socio-economic conditions or even accesibility issues due to challenging geographic conditions. Information and communication technologies facilitate people’s access to public and private services, since by their nature they promote the massive and secure realization ofremote processes. The adoption of technologies for identification has not been alien to Latin American countries, which have approached it in different ways adapted to their contexts. Although the generation of digital services in the region has grown considerably in recent years, companies interested in deploying their services in Latin America must consider in their strategies the specific characteristics of each country in the validation of identity, and consequently the developments that identity documentation has undergone.
Digital documentation
Identification systems allow individuals to provide legal proof of their identity through documents issued by certifying authorities. The importance of these systems lies in the fact that as stated by the World Bank “the ability to prove identity is the basis for participating in the social, political, economic and cultural life of a country” [WBG2019]. For example, in 90% of cases a state-issued document is required to open a bank account, which limits inclusion in access to financial services [FICP2017]. In the case of subsidies granted by the state, it is important to ensure that these are delivered in a timely manner, but at the same time with transparency so that only those to whom it applies benefit. Something similar can be said of health services.
Currently, information and communication technologies have become a key element to guarantee the right to identity, and an ally for countries in their digital transformation strategies to reduce administrative costs, increase tax collection, and offer better services to citizens. Digital identity systems are characterized by making use of digital technologies in the issuance of identity documents, as well as in the registration and validation process. This may include identification with chips where biometric information or asymmetric keys are stored, systems that rely on cellular communications, or even mobile applications, thanks to the high penetration of this technology. This type of tool makes it possible to offer the service of remote identity validation, which is relevant in the Latin American context due to its geographical and socio-economic conditions, since it is in isolated regions where the most vulnerable population tends to be found, and where it is difficult for them to access the services offered by society. Additionally, documents with this type of characteristics have higher security levels than traditional documents, as they are based on standardized digital certificate systems that have been successfully tested for years. On the other hand, a digital identification system makes it easier to keep track of the credentials granted and their use, which promotes transparency in public processes.
However, not only the public administration benefits from the use of digital IDs, and therefore there are private initiatives that have independently generated elements of digital identification of its users based on the identity granted by the states. This presents certain advantages in the validation process since it is performed based on the information obtained during enrollment under the conditions established by the company. However, some national regulations may require the combination of different identity validation techniques for some transactions. This therefore forces users to handle different identities simultaneously, which is cumbersome. This feeling becomes more pronounced if we consider that the same user interacts commercially with several companies, which translates into high friction in usage and probably low adoption. For this reason, a significant part of the private sector continues to use state-provided credentials as the basis for identity validation.
The Estonian case
One of the countries that has advanced more in its digital strategy is Estonia, which had been using an electronic identification since 2002 [ROE2018]. A very interesting aspect of the process that this country has been developing, is that it can be clearly seen how it has evolved its identification system with the aim of facilitating digitization. Thus, today it maintains traditional identification elements such as the ID card, and other purely electronic ones such as the SMART-ID.
As a member country of the European Union, Estonia’s ID card meets certain conditions that facilitate access to EU services [EU2014], although the specific definition of its ID card is given by national regulations. All Estonian citizens have a physical identity document (ID card), which is mandatory. In addition, any citizen with a physical ID card is entitled to obtain a digital identity, which is implemented in different ways. One of these modes is the DigiID, which consists of a card the size of a credit card that has a chip to perform transactions electronically. This is possible because the chip stores an asymmetric key pair. Another mechanism is the mobil-ID, which consists of a SIM card where the keys are stored to interact with web pages that offer government services. However, this mechanism has suffered setbacks, with the discovery of a vulnerability that forced the government to change a significant number of SIM cards. Finally, there is the Smart-ID, which is an application for mobile devices that allows authenticating the user with government services by sending information in real time. The information stored in the chips refers to digital certificates, with a validity period associated with that of the card (5 years). The chips also follow [ISO7816] standards.
Latin America
In Latin America, all countries have government certification authorities, which, as mentioned above, is a fundamental element for the establishment of digital identification and, consequently, for the achievement of the digital transformation based on the individual. In addition, an organization for the exchange of best practices and inter-institutional support was established more than a decade ago, which has even led to projects to enable interoperability between the identification databases of different countries. Although there is an effort by the different countries to provide identity services to their citizens, this does not mean that there are no challenges derived from the conditions of the region. According to ID4D, in Latin America and the Caribbean, in 2018 there were around 50 million unregistered people [WBG2019]. In Colombia, the National Civil Registry has the Vulnerable Population Attention Unit (Udapv) program, which seeks to provide “identification service to remote parts of the country.” Until 2015, the program had served 1,520,085 people in vulnerable conditions, and in 2018 alone, it served a population of 146,178 people through 50 days that covered more than 90% of the country’s departments [RNC2018]. This indicates that a significant effort is required to enable identification throughout the national territory.
Some characteristics of the national documents of Latin American countries can be seen in Table 1. In the Mexican case, two instruments are used to support the identity of the individual: the Clave Única de Registro de Población and the voting credential. The voting credential has QR and barcodes in its different versions. Ecuador is in the process of updating its identity document, and both the identity card and the passport will have an electronic chip in which biometric information will be stored. In the case of Peru, it has been established since 2013 that the National Identity Card (DNI) must be issued with an electronic chip containing the user’s biometric data. In Brazil, progress is being made in defining a national document, although there are initiatives to integrate different sources of personal information in a mobile application. Chile is producing an identity document with NFC readers for wireless downloading of data. Argentina has a DNI that contains biographic and biometric information, but does not include an electronic chip, similar to the case of the current Colombian citizenship card, which contains a photo and fingerprint. However, in Colombia, the National Civil Registry released in 2020 the digital ID card, which includes a digital version of the document that allows its use in digital services.
Although there is no homogeneity of documents in Latin America, and the digital identification process is advancing unevenly in different countries, the supply of digital services continues to advance in the continent. Therefore, identity verification processes are still based on the use of currently available documents, many of which do not have digital components. Therefore, identity validation is mainly based on capturing information from identity documents (mainly through cell phones) and verifying it with the countries’ registration entities. For example, reconoSER ID performs this validation with the National Civil Registry (Registraduría Nacional del Estado Civil) for Colombia. However, these types of identity validation mechanisms are more successful in mitigating the risk of fraud if they are integrated with other components such as biometric information, biographic information or personal reputation systems or digital devices. Therefore, a successful identification strategy must be able to tie these elements together depending on the risk level of the transaction.
Conclusions
The digitization of processes and the offer of digital services require for their successful implementation to ensure the identity of the parties. This process has traditionally been carried out with identity documents issued by the countries’ certifying authorities, but this implies certain limitations that have been addressed by integrating information and communications technologies. Although the generation of digital identity documents opens many possibilities, it is occurring at different rates in Latin American countries, forcing the maintenance of verification processes based on traditional documents. Therefore, companies wishing to have a continental presence should consider identity validation strategies with sufficient flexibility to adapt to the requirements of each country, and with the ability to integrate different data sources. Likewise, in order to validate identity documents, it is necessary to rely on strategic partners with technical and operational experience in processing high volumes of transactions associated with national identity documents.
Written by: Diego Pacheco-Páramo and Nicolás Spijkers
Translated by: Anasol Monguí
Bibliography
[ROE2018] Estonian eID scheme: ID card .Technical specifications and procedures for assurance level high for electronic identification [UE2014] REGULATION (EU) No 910/2014 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC [ISO78162019] ISO/IEC 7816-8:2019 Identification cards — Integrated circuit cards — Part 8: Commands and mechanisms for security operations [FICP2017] 2017 Global Financial Inclusion & Consumer Protection (FICP) Survey, WBG. 124 jurisdictions participated in the survey [RNC2018] Registraduría Nacional del Estado Civil. https://www.registraduria.gov.co/-UDAPV,3683-.html [WBG2019] Identification for Development. Practicioner’s guide. October 2019. World Bank Group.