Identity authentication is absolutely necessary to conducting our affairs today. Without it, we would lose virtually all confidence to conduct business or create and foster relationships. But with ever increasing concerns related to data privacy, it is worth looking at the past to see what future challenges we may face in the digital identity space.
From Jewelry and Markings to Biometrics and AI
Unsurprisingly, identity authentication has gone from a slow evolution to a fast revolution. In ancient times, identity was usually authenticated by jewelry and markings, such as tattoos. These items verified familial ties, tribes, wealth and status within society. With the advent of writing, records could be kept and archived. Even those early records evolved and took different forms over time, standardizing themselves to include basic information, such as birth records, land title deeds and, in some cases, even citizenship.
Many of today’s identity-related documents have roots in the U.K. and other parts of Europe. For example, in 1414, King Henry V of England began to issue “Safe Conducts” documents, warning other countries to allow the bearers of these documents to travel freely. King Louis XIV of France granted travelers a document that allowed them to pass through a port freely, called a “passe port.” Now you know the origin of the word if you did not already.
It was not until the 19th and 20th centuries, however, that authentication really started to go into hyper drive. For thousands of years, we had physical items, markings and letters from a sovereign. Yet in a m ..
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