Hitachi and Panasonic Connect boost digital ID push

Hitachi, Ltd. and Panasonic Connect Group will expand their collaboration toward realizing a digital identity card that allows individuals to securely manage and present their personal information, qualifications, and attribute information digitally. Specifically, by integrating Hitachi’s public biometric authentication platform PBI with Panasonic Connect’s world-class facial recognition technology and a wallet application currently under development, they aim to realize a new digital authentication service that enables individuals to securely manage and utilize their own information, thereby realizing a “self-sovereign identity.” This will allow individuals to securely present only the necessary information for administrative procedures, service usage, entry and exit from events and facilities, and qualification and age verification, both online and offline, thereby simplifying procedures and enhancing daily convenience.

Background of the expanding collaboration

With the rapid advancement of digitalization, online transactions and service use have become indispensable as social infrastructure. On the other hand, traditional identity verification and attribute verification rely on users’ memory of IDs and passwords, which presents challenges such as the risk of impersonation, the complexity of managing different passwords for each service, and concerns that the concentration of personal information in specific businesses could lead to serious privacy violations in the event of information leaks or inappropriate use.

Against this backdrop of challenges, “self-sovereign identity,” which allows individuals to manage their own identity, qualifications, and attribute information and present only the minimum necessary information when needed, and the Digital Identity Wallet (DIW) and digital certificates (Verifiable Credentials) that implement it, are attracting attention. In particular, with the progress of legal frameworks in Europe, as well as international standardization by organizations such as the W3C, and the spread of demonstrations and implementations in both the public and private sectors, its importance is increasing as a next-generation identity verification and attribute certification mechanism envisioned for use throughout society.

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However, with typical DIW (Discovery Without Wiring) methods, private keys must be managed on a device such as a smartphone, which raises new challenges such as the risk of misuse in the event of device loss and the burden of managing recovery passwords.

Since 2023, Hitachi and Panasonic Connect have been collaborating to create safe, secure, and comfortable services by integrating Hitachi’s PBI, which utilizes biometric information as a key, with Panasonic Connect’s facial recognition technology. Now, the two companies are expanding their collaboration to realize a next-generation DIW that is even safer and easier to use, aiming for the social implementation of a digital identity card that everyone can use with peace of mind.

SOURCE: PRTimes