Estonia?s ground-breaking Smart-ID becomes the first electronic ID service to include biometric authentication certified to the highest EU standard.

iProov announced that its facial authentication technology is the first to achieve international digital identity conformance certification and has gone live in Estonia?s state-certified digital identity programme.

This represents a world-first for biometric authentication, machine learning and cloud-based services.

Since 2014, Estonia has earned a global reputation for pioneering the provision and use of digital identities for its citizens. The Smart-ID service now allows Estonians to renew a Smart-ID account, wherever they are in the world, without having to visit a bank branch.

Using an app on their smartphone, a user simply scans the chip of their ID document using the phone?s contactless reader. They then prove that they are the holder of that document by ?iProoving? themselves with a 3-second scan that checks if they?re the right person, a real person, and present right now, thus protecting against fraud and criminal activity.

With a Smart-ID they can authenticate their identity and provide digital signatures online, recognised as being equivalent to handwritten signatures, anywhere in Europe.

The Smart-ID service, which is also available in Latvia and Lithuania, is provided by SK ID Solutions, a Trust Service Provider in the Europe-wide eIDAS digital identity system.

The Smart-ID mobile app also uses InnoValor?s NFC-based ReadID document verification technology alongside iProov?s patented Flashmark facial verification technology.

The new biometric service is a world-first and could only be realised by achieving certification to the most rigorous EU standards for trust and security online.

Independent German auditors T Source: iproov.com