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Spotlight on ApplyBoard

1.What is the mission and vision of ApplyBoard?

 ApplyBoard believes that education is a right, not a privilege. The company empowers prospective international students around the world to access the best education by simplifying the study abroad search, application, and acceptance process. By connecting international students, academic institutions, and recruitment partners on a single digital platform, ApplyBoard drives qualified student applications and diversity to over 1,200 campuses across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. To date, ApplyBoard has assisted more than 120,000 students along their educational journeys and has become the world leader in providing study abroad opportunities.

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

As a company that has disrupted the traditional education application process

through technological innovation, ApplyBoard understands the importance of developing a trustworthy digital identity. The company has broken down barriers to accessing information and opportunity, creating a global digital ecosystem that spans thousands of partners and customers in hundreds of countries around the world. During the online application process, the ability to trust the identity of the applicant is key to improving global mobility. Proof of identity is required at various stages of the international student journey, including admission, international payments, and immigration.

ApplyBoard recently launched ApplyProof, an industry-leading platform that enables immigration stakeholders, students, and institutions to validate document authenticity by providing access to the digital original held securely by ApplyProof. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of digital ecosystems and doing business online, driving the need for heightened security and privacy demands. It is critical for businesses like ApplyBoard to innovate and partner with organizations like DIACC to champion the creation of secure digital properties and tools to drive a digital future.

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

ApplyBoard firmly believes that by creating a strong digital identity framework for Canadians, we will be able to build global trust that will increase capacity for international collaborations. International students play a vital role in driving the Canadian economy. By improving efficiency and trust in the digital ecosystem, the international education segment will thrive faster with fewer costs while positively impacting local economies. Additionally, a robust digital identity framework will reduce international students’ reliance on shared physical locations, allowing them to learn from multiple locations simultaneously from around the world.

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

By bringing together the most forward-thinking public and private sector organizations, institutions, and other stakeholders in the country, Canada has the ability to step up and become a global leader in the digital identification and authentication space. Working together, these groups will showcase their abilities and achieve collectively desired outcomes that benefit Canadians and drive us closer to creating a secure, scalable, inclusive, and privacy-enhancing digital ecosystem.

5. Why did ApplyBoard join the DIACC?

ApplyBoard has joined DIACC to become a foundational member of the ecosystem that’s addressing key identification issues. ApplyBoard is excited to bring its technology and experience to the ecosystem while having the opportunity to learn from other leaders. Together, we will improve the international student journey for the thousands of students that choose to study in Canada every year. As we grow our base of global partners, we are excited to play a role in sharing standards around the world.

6. What else should we know about ApplyBoard?

ApplyBoard was founded in 2015 by Martin, Meti, and Massi Basiri, three brothers that came from Iran to study at post-secondary institutions in Canada. Today, the company has grown to become the world’s largest online platform for international student recruitment, using AI and machine learning to assist more than 120,000 students with their educational journeys. In 2019, ApplyBoard was named the fastest-growing technology company in Canada by Deloitte, ranking #1 on the Technology Fast 50™. The company ranked #2 in 2020. To learn more about ApplyBoard, please visit their website.

Spotlight on FaceTec

1.What is the mission and vision of FaceTec?

FaceTec’s mission is to end identity theft and protect privacy by ensuring access to important accounts and information is only available to their legal owners. FaceTec’s state-of-the-art biometric cybersecurity AI has been specifically designed to enable widespread, secure, unsupervised identity verification and user authentication from any modern smart device or PC with a webcam. 

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

Strong, reliable, digital identity verification empowers individuals by allowing full access and control over current accounts, and protects them when they open new accounts. Trusted digital identity is also critical for enterprise, allowing them to ensure the customers they interact with are legally who they purport to be. By fostering trust on both sides of any remote interaction, FaceTec lowers friction while increasing value. Beyond quantifiable economic benefits, effective user authentication offers noneconomic value to individuals through social and political inclusion, rights protection, and enhanced transparency. The certainty trustworthy digital identity provides is a benefit to individuals, organizations, and society as a whole, and drives higher overall social and economic utility.

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

The adoption of a trustworthy remote digital identity verification program will pay quick and lasting dividends in Canada’s social, economic, and political activities. Natural communications barriers – within and outside of Canada – including vast distances, changing weather, and topographical challenges, will be minimized, fostering simplified, trusted interactions regardless of the environmental circumstances.

FaceTec’s technologies were created from inception to promote inclusion and provide the same advantages to anyone with digital access, regardless of their physical, economic, or social status.

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

Canada’s international reputation for thoughtful, rational decision-making will lend significant credibility to the adoption of strong digital identification programs. With a very diverse and large population, Canada will prove to be a beacon for other large-scale digital ID projects that society as a whole will benefit from.

5. Why did FaceTec join the DIACC?

The DIACC’s goals and approaches to solving a major social and economic problem are aligned with FaceTec’s. Leveraging the DIACC’s comprehensive relationship network and FaceTec’s first-hand technology and market experience, will ensure the development of a much more effective and inclusive solution.

6. What else should we know about FaceTec?

A pioneer and global leader in biometric cybersecurity dedicated to privacy, security, and transparency, FaceTec has provided the most accurate remote authentication technology to hundreds-of-millions of users on six continents. FaceTec patented 3D FaceScan UI, battle-tested 3D Liveness Detection, and 3D Face Matching AI anchors identity and enables true passwordless authentication from all modern smart devices and webcam-enabled systems. FaceTec’s small-footprint (3.9mb) device SDKs and neural-network-powered server SDK comprise a complete, feature-rich authentication platform that allows customers’ user data to stay encrypted behind their own firewalls. Easy to integrate into any app or web page, hundreds of organizations now provide exceptionally secure new account onboarding and ongoing access to high-value accounts in financial and government institutions, telecoms, ecommerce, blockchain, social networks, and more.

Spotlight on ARUCC

1.What is the mission and vision of ARUCC?

The Association of Registrars of the Universities and Colleges of Canada (ARUCC) provides leadership in the post-secondary education field and service to its member institutions nationally and internationally, helping foster the advancement of registrarial practices in Canada. ARUCC strives to meet the needs of its members by adopting proactive measures reflecting changes in our professional environment.

Member institutions consist of universities, colleges and polytechnics that are recognized through either Universities Canada or the Colleges and Institutes Canada.

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

The need for online solutions increased with the COVID-19 pandemic. These solutions will become the norm as Canada and the global economy adapt to consumer expectations. As members of the post-secondary education field in Canada, we are not unfamiliar with the need for trustworthy digital identity given the increased demand for sending/receiving electronic documents.

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

Digital identity is most often managed as a gate to individual businesses through methods such as confidential passwords, PINs, and security questions. With each business having its own requirements (i.e., variations of password length and structure) it becomes nearly impossible for people to remember them all. Businesses and post-secondary institutions are forming allegiances to minimize the impact on the individual while maintaining trustworthy digital identity. An example of this is with CRA and banking passwords.

ARUCC also recognizes the need for trustworthy digital identity and is leading the implementation of a National Network with the core objective of improving permission-based, trusted access and portability of learner documents (i.e., transcripts, confirmation letters) across Canada and with trusted international partners for students, graduates, participating post-secondary institutions, provincial application centres and member 3rd party organizations.

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

Canada is in the global arena and is recognized as being trustworthy and reliable. From the post-secondary perspective, Canada has over 2.5 million students including more than 642 thousand international students[1] (based on 2019 statistics). As a destination for higher education it is imperative that trusted networks be established for identity management. The formation of the ARUCC National Network allows us to establish a ‘made for Canada’ solution that can also be tied to other trusted networks (i.e., My eQuals, CHESICC).

In 2018 Canada ratified the Lisbon Recognition Convention which demonstrates our commitment to the recognition of academic credentials, which need to be portable, as learners and alumni move to work and live around the globe. This inspires the work of ARUCC to enhance trusted document exchange and provide learner credential wallets.

5. Why did ARUCC join the DIACC?

ARUCC believes in working together to achieve common goals. We feel the purpose of ARUCC and the creation of the National Network to support learner mobility aligns well with DIACC’s principals.

6. What else should we know about ARUCC?

ARUCC was formed in 1964 and became incorporated in 2018. It includes over 150 member institutions representing over 2.5 million current learners and millions of alumni from within Canada and around the globe.

Spotlight on Celero

1. What is the mission and vision of Celero?

Our vision is to be a leading provider of technology solutions to the financial industry that…

  • Others aspire to be
  • People want to work for
  • Clients know they can rely upon.

Celero is realizing this vision is by delivering a digital technology, integration and payments ecosystem to credit unions and financial institutions across Canada. This is accomplished through an innovative mindset, commitment to delivery, strong external partnerships and an unrelenting focus on reliability and security.

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

As a provider of technology solutions to credit unions, we recognize the growing expectation our clients face from their members who demand convenience, innovation and robust security in every financial experience.

Digital identity is the mechanism to enable our clients to secure their members’ trust as they serve them in an increasingly digital world. Beyond that, digital identity can be an enabling force for Canadians who are unbanked or underbanked. We believe in supporting the financial health of our customers’ customers and recognize that authentication of identity is a means for a more financially inclusive Canada.

Overall, Celero recognizes we have a critical role to play in enabling our clients to build trusted and lasting relationships with their current and future members through a trusted digital identity framework.

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

To protect consumers, organizations put safety measures in place that can also cause constraints on convenience. This has been an ongoing challenge for financial institutions, and today’s ‘on-demand’ culture has served to spotlight these issues.

A trusted digital identity framework for Canada will provide a backbone of security in convenient transactions – removing barriers, streamlining service delivery, and strengthening national and global economies.

Celero can help shape the framework with a  credit union perspective and can seek out the potential use cases and applications that can benefit our clients and their members and contribute to the DIACC’s goals through our expertise in financial technology and cyber security.

For instance, the Celero Xchange™ digital integration ecosystem platform enables financial institutions to seamlessly connect their secure platforms, such as their core banking system, to fintech applications – without the complexity of managing different standards for sharing data between products and partners.

Authenticating and authorizing a credit union member without compromising the security while maintaining a seamless member user experience is a key component of our platform and value proposition.

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

Canada has a growing fintech industry that is constantly seeking new ways to address digital innovation challenges and better serve consumers. The industry is becoming internationally recognized, and that expertise can serve Canada well in shaping a world-class digital identity framework that sets the standard for other countries to follow.

5. Why did Celero Solutions join the DIACC?

Our goal in joining the DIACC is to participate in driving forward solutions for digital identity trust in Canada, while obtaining new insights to apply with our clients in offering their members security, flexibility and convenience in a digital first society.

Spotlight on Vlinder

1. What’s your organization’s mission and vision?

Based in the United States and India, Vlinder’s vision is to enable an inclusive and sustainable ecosystem, with trust as the underpinning foundation.

Vlinder platforms are built harnessing new-gen technologies including blockchain, IoT and artificial intelligence to foster inclusion and sustainability within the ecosystem. 

Vlinder platform offerings are focused on helping private and public enterprises working towards the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. 

2. How will digital identity transform the Canadian and global economy?

Globally, there are 1 billion people without proper identification, which equates to roughly one seventh of the world’s population. This population typically includes low income and vulnerable groups including women and girls, migrants, refugees, individuals with disabilities, and indigenous populations.

Not having access to proper ID restricts these vulnerable populations in obtaining basic essential services such as health, education, and financial services. 

ID is a foundational element that is a direct and indirect enabler of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including:

  • Access to finance
  • Gender equality and empowerment
  • Access to basic health and education
  • Child protection
  • Social protection
  • Labour Markets

Building an inclusive sustainable ecosystem will not only better the lives of vulnerable populations, but will also help improve the global economy as more people will be contributing. 

3. How does your organization address the needs of this transformation?

Vlinder has built a decentralized ID platform, Klefki, which enables citizens to:

  • Own their identity.
  • Accept credentials from issuers and store them securely in mobile wallets.
  • Share credentials with verifiers using consent on demand.
  • Disclose selective details of credentials, as opposed to sensitive data.

Enables issuers to:

  • Issue credentials directly to the users wallet.
  • View all the credentials issued.

Enables verifiers to:

  • Verify credentials with citizens directly.

Our platform is being piloted in various countries, and is focused on bringing trust and inclusion to the broader population, while enabling the existing system to be more efficient. 

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

All countries have a role to play in accelerating progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Canada is a leader in technology and with a progressive mindset is well positioned not only to transform the ID (and peripheral) ecosystem within the country, but to bring change and transformation to the world. 

Any transformation led by Canada will be seen by the world and developing economies as a reference model for adoption. 

5. Why did your organization join DIACC and what else should we know about your organization?

Vlinder joined DIACC to participate and contribute to an important initiative, which is not only transformational for the Canadian population, but to the rest of the world. 

Spotlight on Mavennet

1. What is the mission and vision of Mavennet?

Mavennet’s vision is to build a new world of trust. 

We strive to empower large enterprises with better and more effective ways to securely share information and value. We build on technologies such as blockchain and AI to help transform entire industries. Our focus extends to several industries: financial services, supply chain, energy, the public sector and media and entertainment. Our business focuses on challenging the status quo of industries that are in need for disruption, either internally or externally.

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

Identity is at the foundation of any sharing of value or information. 

Traditional identity management systems are vulnerable to single points of failure, they raise privacy issues for the data they carry and limit the possibility of secure interoperability. In industries with business processes that rely on complex workflows or transactions amongst multiple stakeholders, the need for trustworthy digital identity becomes paramount.

At Mavennet, we are implementing decentralized identifiers to our suite of supply chain products to be able to associate a robust digital identity to actors and assets along a network. In conjunction with verifiable credentials (VCs) we enable cryptographically sound and privacy preserving claims that provide transparency and traceability to value chain participants. Ultimately, this trusted digital history of physical assets enables industries to have reliable provenance of goods and attribute actions to stakeholders. This addresses the most pressing pain points of global supply chains: traceability, auditability, flexibility and stakeholder management. 

Unlocking trustworthy digital identity in a way that is easy to implement in existing enterprise environments and can be readily adopted by multiple industries is crucial. It opens new pathways to emerging markets that are vulnerable to lack of trust amongst participants. 

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

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the lack of responsiveness and flexibility of global supply chains, as evidenced by the spike in closures of manufacturing facilities and the unmet demand for basic commodities. An added concern for international trade is the rise in counterfeiting, which exceeds $900 billion USD annually. These threats to the security and stability of global supply chains can be in part offset by the adoption of digital identities. Their power to unlock fast, secure and trustworthy exchanges, can significantly improve the operational and business process efficiency of industries as a whole. This overhaul of internal traditional processes translates into more globally competitive businesses and positions Canada as an incrementally valuable trading partner.

Mavennet has been deeply involved in the space of decentralized identities and VCs through the deployment of an energy traceability platform that provides end-to-end visibility of assets. This solution, called Neoflow, has laid out new standards for exchange of data in the form of VCs between supply chain stakeholders by identifying them with a unique decentralized identifier. Our goal is to aid the transformation towards digital identities by providing a set of standards and APIs that enable seamless integration with other vendors with the same vision and legacy systems.

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

Canada is particularly well poised to act as a leader in this space, given its strong international voice relative to its size.

Canada has a unique opportunity to drive the standards for adoption at an international level, due to its position as a global emerging innovation ecosystem and technology hub. Further, as a top global exporter of crude oil, gold, wheat, aluminum and others, Canada plays a key role in the way that international trade is conducted. The country has the international relevance to coordinate and propagate digital identity initiatives.

5. Why did Mavennet join the DIACC?

Defining identity standards collaboratively is an essential step when you are looking at transforming entire industries. Up to now we have been doing work with decentralized identity and VCs standards applied to the industries we focus on. We hope to leverage our experience and vision to contribute to the work DIACC does and help raise the water level for Canadian technology as a whole.

6. What else should we know about Mavennet?

We are currently working on exciting solutions for governments and multinational companies in Canada, US and Europe. The core IP of these solutions involves identity management, asset traceability, digital assets, analytics and artificial intelligence. Some of these are:

  • Neoflow – provides end-to-end digital traceability for energy. In particular we are working with the United States Department of Homeland Security  to help with traceability in the oil and gas sector. Multiparty, real-time, immutable data and insights gathered by Neoflow allows governments and key stakeholders to make data-backed decisions on supply/demand, regulation policies and tariffs.  
  • MetalTrail – traces the steel value chain, including materials’ dependencies, to certify the true origin, quality and environmental footprint of steel products.  
  • QCAD – is the first fully-regulated Canadian Dollar Stablecoin. This product was created through Stablecorp, a joint venture between 3iQ and Mavennet.  
  • MavenStamp – seamlessly provides “immutability as a service” through an API. It enables non-technical users to timestamp data on the blockchain and obtain  evidence of its existence. 

Earlier this year Mavennet launched an EU sponsored multinational blockchain research project funded at $12 million CAD. Mavennet leads the consortium as the technical lead. In this way, we are excited to continue contributing to the digital identity space and to be in such a privileged company with the DIACC. 

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