Nearly one-third of all Americans have created a digital wallet that can be used to access services and benefits
MCLEAN, Va., April 4, 2023 — ID.me, the secure digital identity network, announced today that more than 100 million Americans have signed up for an ID.me Digital Wallet to speed access to services and benefits. ID.me’s Wallet implements a verify-once-anywhere, get-frictionless-access-everywhere approach to login and identity. This milestone represents significant progress toward consumer control of personal data.
“103 million Americans represents a new high-water mark on our team’s journey to take friction out of people’s lives while helping them access services and benefits they deserve,” said Blake Hall, co-founder and CEO of ID.me. “We know people are frustrated by having to manage passwords and to re-prove who they are at each website they visit. ID.me is designed to be the last login you need to create and manage, and the last identity verification you complete. Your data should move with you across the internet.”
ID.me’s Wallet enables users to more easily log in and prove their identity across a large and growing network of public, healthcare, financial services, retail and travel sector platforms. Fourteen federal agencies, 35 agencies in 30 states and more than 500 private and nonprofit organizations accept credentials that can be stored in the ID.me Digital Wallet.
“103 million Americans represents a new high-water mark on our team’s journey to take friction out of people’s lives while helping them access services and benefits they deserve.”
— Blake Hall, co-founder and CEO, ID.me
Of the more than 100 million, 40 million users are verified against the Department of Commerce’s NIST IAL2 standard. That puts ID.me’s scale of trusted and portable digital identities on par with leading western democracies, including some of the largest programs in Europe, which have innovated to improve customer experience and digital service delivery.
Portable and reusable identity credentials improve customer experience and increase access to services. As users move from site to site, access rates can exceed 99 percent when high-assurance credentials are re-used. Access rates for verified users are much higher than alternative industry methods at a similar level of security. The ability for users to re-use a single verification event also locks in equity gains.
ID.me is committed to a future where No Identity is Left Behind. After recognizing that most identity verification processes depend on credit bureaus or data brokers, ID.me created the first public sector option compliant with NIST standards to enable people to verify over a video chat call with a photo ID. This innovation made digital identity verification possible for millions of Americans who have no banking records or thin credit files. Individuals in these traditionally underserved populations now have an avenue to high-assurance and secure access to online identity verification services. More than 6.5 million Americans have verified through this method out of the 44 million-plus users ID.me has verified overall.
ID.me’s track record of innovating to improve access has particularly focused on communities left behind by historic methods of verification. These communities include individuals without credit history, unhoused populations and tribal users. For example, a federal agency working with ID.me found that users from Puerto Rico experienced a relative increase in pass rates of more than 300 percent with ID.me compared to the data broker solution previously used by the agency.
ID.me is the only identity verification solution that complies with NIST Federal Digital Identity Guidelines, which turn into binding requirements for federal agencies, while offering three pathways to verification – online self-serve, video chat with a human agent, and in-person. Expanding secure digital identity verification across the public sector reduces the risk of fraud and safeguards users against identity theft.
Seven states (California, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Nevada and New York) collectively credit ID.me with helping to prevent more than $270 billion in fraud targeted at pandemic programs.
ID.me is committed to a secure, equitable, and consumer-controlled model of identity verification, which enables individuals – not data brokers or credit bureaus – to decide how their data is used and shared.
About ID.me
ID.me simplifies how individuals prove and share their identity online. More than 100 million members can use their ID.me Wallet to easily verify their identity across 30 states, 14 federal agencies, and over 500 name-brand retailers across ID.me’s secure digital identity network. The company provides secure login, identity proofing, and community affiliation verification for organizations across sectors. ID.me’s technology meets the federal standards for consumer authentication set by the Commerce Department and is approved as a NIST 800-63-3 IAL2 / AAL2 credential service provider by the Kantara Initiative. ID.me is committed to “No Identity Left Behind” to enable all people to have a secure digital identity. To learn more, visit network.ID.me.
