The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has partnered with SpruceID to enhance privacy and security in digital credentials for cross-border interactions. The initiative is part of DHS’s Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP), which focuses on creating secure, interoperable digital identity tools that will help U.S. residents with travel, immigration, and employment verification processes.
The collaboration addresses key challenges around identity theft and unauthorized access, which stem from insufficient data control mechanisms and difficulties in interoperability between systems.
In 2023, the DHS issued a solicitation under its “Privacy Preserving Digital Credential Wallets & Verifiers” topic call, seeking solutions to develop a secure digital credentialing ecosystem. This solicitation supports components of the DHS, including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
SpruceID’s role in the partnership involves using its open-source libraries to develop digital credential wallets and verifiers, which will comply with global standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), such as the Verifiable Credential Data Model (VCDM) and Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs). These standards will ensure the credentials used for DHS applications are secure, interoperable, and functional across a wide range of sectors, including finance and healthcare.
As part of this collaboration, SpruceID will enhance its wallet and verifier capabilities to meet the DHS’s stringent privacy and security requirements. This includes integrating privacy-preserving components directly into DHS credentialing systems to protect users’ data during travel and border crossings. The goal is to establish a standardized framework that can be adopted by other public and private entities, expanding the application of digital credentials beyond immigration and border control.
This partnership builds on recent developments, such as the rollout of digital IDs in California, where residents can now add their digital IDs to Apple Wallet. SpruceID played a key role in this launch through its collaboration with the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
Source: ID Tech
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October 17, 2024 – by the Mobile ID World Editorial Team
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