The philosophy of seclusion: how remote identification helps us out in difficult times

We are sure that self-isolation will end soon, we will put up with a virus that will continue to live next to us (as experts say), mutate and multiply. In the meantime, humanity is waiting, we are creating new consumer habits. Services and applications that were not so long ago auxiliary, and today come to the fore. We do not notice that many everyday services can be obtained only with full-time confirmation of identity. This can be done by presenting a passport (in some cases, another document equivalent to it), as a rule, to a responsible employee of the organization that provides us services. Despite the active transfer to digital rails of many state and municipal services, as well as services in the financial and insurance sectors, the initial application to the organization requires the presentation of a passport. But how to do this when one side (the client) is forbidden to leave the house, and the other side (bank, insurance, notary, representative of the telecom operator) is in a remote mode of operation? Remote identity identification comes to the rescue here.

Istock / ipopba

Background

Remote identity identification involves several related actions: recognition of an identity card and its verification of authenticity, as well as user verification – comparing selfies and photographs on an identity card. The main difference from biometric identification is that biometrics (fingerprint, retina, DNA sample, voice sample) require a complex infrastructure for collecting and transmitting personal information, as well as its protection. In the case of compromise of biometric data and access to it by strangers, it will be extremely difficult to replace it, since biometrics accompanies remains with us for life practically unchanged. That is why, probably, the collection of biometrics in Russian banks is being implemented at a much slower pace than was stated.

Remote user identification through the recognition of an identity document using a mobile phone or web camera allows us to solve problems that we are used to solve using methods of the 20th century – that is, by directly contacting the operator by phone or going to the office. Today, many (but by no means all) actions are quite feasible to perform without getting up off the couch. Remote pizza ordering or home delivery of everyday goods does not require personal identification – these are simple tasks that are becoming commonplace in large cities. For regions and remote settlements, remote service issues concern more of those sectors that during the isolation period limited their activities or switched to online.

Call an ambulance and see a doctor

Remote recognition of documents could greatly facilitate the work of an ambulance: an integrated application with automatic recognition of a passport, medical insurance policy, SNILS number can speed up the process of applying for an ambulance call. There is no need to dictate your data to the operator by phone, to fill out numerous forms by hand. Unfortunately, such a service does not work for us yet, although it is calling an ambulance at a specific address to a specific patient with the simultaneous automatic safe input of user data that can offload the dispatch service.

In the case of using telemedicine services, remote patient identification is necessary for the doctor located on the other side of the screen to clearly understand: this is the person whose medical history he is looking at, and not someone else who has gained access to his personal account. Today, the most responsible medical organizations that service their patients remotely already have remote identification capabilities in their applications, and in addition make this procedure mandatory when a patient seeks help. Abroad, the practice of mandatory customer identification is widespread: medical data are among the most sensitive and for their compromise the organization may receive significant fines, not to mention reputation damage.

IStock / mikkelwilliam

SIM cards

In isolation (voluntary or forced), the issue of mobile communications for many is one of the key. Until recently, in order to draw up a contract for the use of the services of mobile operators, it was mandatory to come to a communication salon and personally sign a contract, while presenting your passport to the operator. In Russia, all the largest mobile operators provide their customers with the possibility of self-registration. It is enough to grab an envelope with a nameless unactivated SIM-card from a shelf in almost any chain store or supermarket, and register in the calm conditions of the house. Recognition of passport data, verification of a document for signs of falsification and verification of identity (comparing a person with a photo in a passport) transmit all operations from the operator in the office to artificial intelligence. If desired, the card can be ordered with home delivery in a contactless manner.

It took money: a loan “until everything is over”

Getting a loan without leaving your home is also not an easy task. Now, so far, only some banks issue loans through personal accounts: this applies to existing customers, who receive wages on the card and have already confirmed their identity by going to the bank, or submitted biometric data to a single repository. A number of financial institutions (some banks and MFIs) are already implementing software modules in their applications that allow you to remotely process applications from new clients. We do not evaluate whether it is good or bad whether it is right or wrong to take loans in a period of uncertainty. We only mean that today organizations moving to online bring to the forefront those technological capabilities that until recently were only auxiliary or were in a state of perpetual testing.

iStock / reklamlar

Become self-employed

Regrettably, many will lose their jobs during the period of forced downtime of enterprises and the closure of small businesses. (Judging by the reviews, few people get to register with the employment service remotely, and paperwork is required to apply for benefits, which must be attached to the application.) But unemployed self-isolation also has a downside: it is possible to register as a self-employed and start a completely legal remote activity. Through the tax service application, the entire registration process takes no more than 10 minutes and does not require a visit to the tax office. Even if there is no access to the taxpayer’s personal account, registration can be done using a tablet or phone, when scanning a passport, the data for the application is recognized and filled out automatically. To confirm your identity, in addition to entering the passport fields, you need to take a picture to confirm the identity of the person and the photo in the passport. Note that the registration process does not require the input of biometric data.

The evolution of identification

Today, authorities are seriously thinking about equating a mobile phone with an identity card. Indeed, mobile phone identification and the use of his number in two-factor user authentication has long been used in various services provided by insurance, financial, medical companies and telecom operators. The devices themselves today allow you to protect user data with a password, pattern, fingerprint, retina and 3D face model. It becomes completely obvious that presenting a passport as an identifying document in the camera lens of a smartphone is technically no different from presenting the same passport to an operator at a desk in an office. The only difference is that scanning and entering passport data into the system requires less than a second for machine vision, while manual entry of data by a person will take two minutes at best. Plus, machine-based document recognition systems based on the artificial intelligence of recent generations are “mistaken” much less often than humans. The same applies to information leaks: the largest percentage of user information leaks to the network is due to the notorious human factor, when operators simply sell the entered data (or scanned passports) to interested fraudsters.

Freedom or slavery?

It’s hard to call the seat locked up freedom. Rather, the constant dependence on digital devices, attachment to a computer, phone, TV, game console forms some, albeit very comfortable, digital slavery. But here’s the paradox: the ability to voluntarily verify your identity (presenting your passport, checking your face) and thereby gaining access to services that are normally available only offline, Is an expansion of opportunities and a step towards maintaining the familiar quality of life and the familiar set of services.

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