Log in once and have secure access to different services without re-tapping? Thanks to the cross-industry platform verimi this will soon be possible. Deutsche Telekom is joining the platform.
Every website, every service asks for logging data. The users have to re-enter it for every single one, and also use different passwords. A cross-industry platform, launched by leading German and European companies, wants to change this and make it easy for users to log on to their websites and other services with the help of a digital identity: The registration, identity and data platform is supposed to start as a digital key at the end of the year. Telekom is a shareholder.
The “master key” requires users to log onto the platform once using their name and a password. They can then access participating companies’ applications that are already connected to the platform at that point in time. Logging onto a new application will no longer require personal data to be laboriously entered each time. Nor will users require several passwords for different websites. When they register, users are asked for their express consent to data being passed on to partner companies. Once they have consented, they can then decide which data they allow to be passed on (opt-in).
Expanding verimi functionality
More features will gradually be added to the registration and identification platform, for instance digital access to authorities (eGovernment) or digital payment and financial services. And this basis will enable new digital business models to be developed. Further details will be announced in the coming weeks.
New partners on board
New partners to the venture are the DAX-listed companies Deutsche Lufthansa, Deutsche Telekom as well as Bundesdruckerei, an IT security company, all of which have signed an agreement with the founding partners Allianz, Axel Springer, Daimler, Deutsche Bank with Postbank as well as Core and Here Technologies. The new partners’ joining still requires the approval of the relevant antitrust authorities.
At launch, the platform will already cover a broad market as it has attracted partners from the automotive, aviation, financial, insurance, IT, media, technology, and telecommunication industries. And the partners are committed to quickly attracting more companies representing all sectors of the German and European economies. verimi is the competitive European answer to international platform providers. It has been purposely designed as a cross-industry, open platform that application partners or other initiatives can join and, together with the founding partners, can help to expand and grow.
Why “verimi”?
verimi is a combination of the words “verify” and “me”. Introductory information about the platform can be found at www.verimi.com. The venture will be based in Berlin and employ over 30 people when it launches.
