Digital identity

The full set of data, credentials, and traits, biometric, government-issued, or self-declared, that represents a specific real person online.

It includes things like a name and date of birth, a digital copy of a driver's license, a face template, and the accounts a person has created.

The aggregate of attributes, credentials, and biometric references bound to a natural person and usable to prove who they are across digital services, ranging from a single verified credential to a full portable identity like a digital wallet.

A digital identity is built from several kinds of information:

• Attributes, such as name, date of birth, and address.
• Credentials, such as a digital driver's license or a verified account.
• Biometric references, such as a face template used for matching.

Digital identities differ in how much confidence they carry:

• Self-declared identities rest on what the person says, with no check behind them.
• Verified identities have been checked against evidence, such as a government ID and a selfie, and the check can be graded by identity assurance level.
• Government-issued digital identities, such as a national digital ID or mobile driver's license, come from an authority that proofed the person.

Digital identity sits next to terms that are easy to mix up:

• Digital identity wallet is the app that holds a person's credentials.
• Reusable identity is the idea of verifying once and reusing the result across services.
• Identity verification (IDV) is the process that confirms a digital identity belongs to the person claiming it.

For more, see What Is a Digital Identity? A Complete Guide.