Yearly Archives: 2019

1. What is the mission and vision of Trulioo? 

Trulioo is an identity verification company, its team dedicated to building a framework of trust online, developing best privacy practices and advancing financial inclusion.

They are on a mission to help provide verifiable identities for everyone who wants and needs access to the endless opportunities and possibilities manifested by the online, borderless economy, regardless of their circumstances.

2. Why is trustworthy digital identity critical for existing and emerging markets?

For existing markets, digital identity delivers synergies with the modern economy. As more and more aspects of modern business and society occur online, seamless identity increases the speed of operations while ensuring safety and trust for all.

3. How will digital identity transform the Canadian and global economy? How does Trulioo address challenges associated with this transformation?

Already in some jurisdictions, new businesses can be created online within minutes. The ability to interact and transact is increased when trust is instant, and will be further amplified with new unimagined opportunities just around the corner.

While speed is valuable, a “Pandora’s box” of potential issues comes into play if security and compliance are compromised. It is vital that privacy be protected and that interactions take place with the entity or person that they claim to be. Trulioo’s mandate of trust, privacy and inclusion is focused on delivering opportunities to the next generation of internet users while ensuring that proper protections are in place.

4. What role does Canada have to play as a leader in the space?

From Trulioo’s point of view, as a member of the G8, a liberal democracy with strong beliefs in multiculturalism, as well as an advanced high-tech economy, Canada has an obligation to drive digital identity forward. Without privacy protections, digital identity could become an authoritarian tool. Without inclusion, digital identity could become an instrument of the wealthy and further divide the haves and have-nots. Without trust, economic opportunities will wither. Canada and Canadians have a reputation of being trustworthy brokers, as it were, and using our global respect to help spread the power of digital identity as an international imperative is one of the greatest achievements that Canada can contribute in the 21st century.

5. Why did Trulioo join the DIACC?

Trulioo joined the DIACC because they are invested in the success of verifiable digital identity, especially for Canadian organizations that want to participate in the global digital economy. They hope to share what they’ve learned from experience verifying individuals and business across the globe — insights about jurisdictions, regulatory requirements, cultural nuances, use cases, privacy standards and risk appetites.

6. What else should we know about Trulioo? 

Trulioo is a homegrown Canadian company, headquartered in Vancouver, BC. Founders Stephen Ufford and Tanis Jorge are committed to empowering technology leaders and change agents for financial inclusion. To that end, Trulioo is growing its local workforce and fueling the Canadian job market as the company expands.

1. What is the mission and vision of Pragma Business and Technologies Inc.?

Our vision is to give every citizen of the world a verifiable, self-sovereign digital identity (sometimes called decentralized identity), where each citizen is in control of their own personal data.

Our mission is to facilitate and contribute to the development of digital trust ecosystems in the province of Quebec. These ecosystems of trust will be required to fully interoperate with all other systems in Canada and, as standards are being developed and emerge, with the rest of the world. 

2. Why is trustworthy digital identity critical for existing and emerging markets?

For us, privacy means freedom. And right now, privacy is almost nonexistent, as we are not in control of our personal data and our consent is too often taken for granted or forced upon us. To combat this daily challenge of our freedom, we need to start giving back to the legitimate information holder – the citizen – the control of his or her personal data.

3. How will digital identity transform the Canadian and global economy? How does Pragma Business and Technologies Inc. address challenges associated with this transformation?

Providing all Canadians with a digital identity will have many transformative benefits: people will have better control of their personal data, have an improved user experience with reduced friction, and increased trust. This will also contribute to preventing fraud and increase privacy, which stand as challenges today.
Pragma is interested in playing a role in this ecosystem of trust, and joining the DIACC represents a first step towards playing that role.

4. What role does Canada have to play as a leader in the space?

Canada, being an active leader of the Digital 9 initiative, is already at the forefront of the global digital identity transformation. With its recently developed Digital Charter, Canada can clearly lead the way by contributing, among other things, to the development of W3C standards that will make decentralized digital identity a reality. This transformation is still in its infancy and much of the work remains to be done.

5. Why did Pragma Business and Technologies Inc. join the DIACC?

Over the past decade, the DIACC has had an important role in bringing together the public and private sectors to sit down and jointly develop a digital identity trust framework. For us, it was important to become a member of the DIACC to be at the table with other Canadian leaders that are all working towards the same goal of realizing that vision of a unified digital identity. We want to play an active role in this space, and we want to collaborate and learn.

6. What else should we know about Pragma Business and Technologies Inc.?

There are many ways to contribute to the vast undertaking of making digital identity a reality. We are currently exploring which contributions are most valuable, and have identified some key projects. In the meantime, we are open to evaluating any project collaboration opportunities that show promise and potential value in the pursuit of digital identity in Canada.

1. What is the mission and vision of Oaro?

We use the digital world to verify the real one. At Oaro, it’s not about technology, it’s about truth. 

When we’re asked what Oaro does, there are a few different answers we could give. We create and deliver secure, enterprise-grade applications to enhance our clients’ ability to thrive in the digital economy. We contribute to a future where the gap between information in the digital realm and the real world is much narrower than today. That’s why major institutions and businesses from across the globe call us when they need to verify first, trust second. Onboard, and admit your people faster, keep their information and yours secure — and help the truth move a whole lot faster.

2. Why is trustworthy digital identity critical for existing and emerging markets?

The word ‘trust’ originates from Old Norse treysta, meaning “to rely on, make strong and safe.” The digital identity landscape today is anything but treysta-worthy! Data breaches, password overload and the privacy abuses of big tech have all contributed to the situation we currently find ourselves in. Our personal data is siloed, often for sale to the highest bidder (legally and illegally), and these problems just seem to be multiplying as digital services become pervasive. 

Most of us will agree that digitization is desirable, and that it unlocks significant economic value. At Oaro, we are building products that go beyond pure identity functionalities, but most use cases our clients share with us cannot be successful without a reliable identity solution at the core. We also don’t believe there is going to be a major distinction between technology in the developed world and the emerging markets going forward. If anything, emerging markets enjoy the advantage of agility when it comes to choosing the right tools for the job. We have boots on the ground in Mexico, and are seeing strong uptake of Oaro Identity there. Follow us on social media or visit Oaro.net for an announcement in the coming weeks! 

3. How will digital identity transform the Canadian and global economy? How does Oaro address challenges associated with this transformation?

Much has been said on this topic already, and while we agree entirely with DIACC’s estimates of the economic benefits of digital identity for the Canadian economy, we are cautious about predicting the future. Rather than feeding the hype cycle, Oaro has taken the path of quietly working with our clients to solve real business problems, while rigorously measuring the results.  

Oaro is focused on creating trust in a digital world. Our technology is revolutionizing how leading organizations authenticate and authorize the flow of their digital information. Our product, Oaro Identity, connects people to their identities and simplifies your business processes while doing it. Normally, increased security comes with additional layers of process, but the opposite is true with Oaro Identity —  as processes become simpler, they become more secure. 

4. What role does Canada have to play as a leader in the space?

Canada has a long tradition of leadership in when it comes to setting standards. 150 years ago, North America had 144 official time zones. One fateful night, railroad engineer Sir Sandford Fleming was forced to spend the night in a train station because of confused timetables. This uncomfortable situation led him to advocate tirelessly for international standard time, which we now take for granted. 

Oaro’s position is that digital identity is broken, and much like the world before standard time, we are all suffering from the resulting confusion. Canadian businesses have demonstrated global leadership in the identity space, and it is now up to Canadians themselves to embrace these new technologies in everyday life. 

5. Why did Oaro join the DIACC?

Oaro strongly believes that solving the challenge of modernizing digital identity takes a collaborative approach. We are proactively working with several international organizations, such as the International Civil Aviation Authority’s (ICAO) newly formed Trust Framework Study Group, which seeks to establish identity standards for global aviation security. We are also a member and node operator of Alastria in Spain, a non-profit association which promotes standards-based digital identity in Spain and throughout Europe. When we met other DIACC members at IdentityNORTH and saw the valuable work being done, we knew it would be a great fit for Oaro. 

6. What else should we know about Oaro?

Working with the Saint John Airport, we created a first-of-it’s-kind solution for secure entry for airport employees and contractors. 

As one of the fastest-growing small airports in Canada, serving nearly 300,000 passengers annually, Saint John Airport has long been recognized as one of Canada’s most innovative flight hubs. The executive team has focused on putting into place systems that can scale as the airport grows. With Oaro’s help, Saint John was able to implement a system where authorized employees only had to approach a secure door, and face into a camera in order to gain access. 

Oaro’s technology recognizes full-motion video, so would-be criminals can’t gain access using high resolution photographs. Lost or stolen swipe cards are a non-issue. Each user is authenticated in real time, and a tamper-proof record of their access is stored. The result is an easily scalable, entirely secure system that leveraged a large portion of the airport’s existing technology spend to improve both safety and efficiency.