Yoti will support individuals in Scotland to create a secure digital identity, giving them an easier and safer way to prove their age and entitlement to access services
- Through an Alpha phase, the pathfinder will look to unlock the potential of Yoti’s free app to let Scottish residents prove their age and entitlement, online and in person
- Yoti responded to the tender issued by The Improvement Service which called for digital identity companies to help transform local and regional services through innovation
- This announcement follows successful partnerships in India and Jersey, helping Yoti on its mission to become the world’s trusted identity platform
Yoti, a UK based digital identity platform, has announced that it has been selected by The Improvement Service to give Scottish residents a simpler and safer way of proving their age and entitlement to access a wide range of services, rewards and discounts. As part of the pathfinder’s Alpha phase, individuals will be able to leave valuable ID documents like their passport, driving licence or other existing forms of identity safe at home, and prove who they are with the secure Yoti app. This development will provide an additional access channel for smartphone holders; other access channels, like telephone and face-to-face, will continue to be made available.
Scottish residents will, either as part of the Alpha phase or potentially in the future, be able to use Yoti to:
- Prove who they are to businesses without showing or photocopying paper documents
- Prove their age on nights out and when buying age-restricted goods
- Prove their entitlement to use local services, including leisure and sports facilities
- Show their age on transport services to qualify for travel concessions
- Confirm the identity of people they meet online
- Log into websites more securely without passwords
- Securely access online public services by applying for a myaccount
Yoti gives people more control over their personal data by allowing them to share specific identity attributes (i.e. just their name or 18+) without disclosing their full identity, helping to protect them from the ever-growing risk of identity fraud.
The free Yoti app is available for Apple and Android phones and takes less than five minutes to set up. People take a selfie and add an ID document with their smartphone, which is transformed into a digital identity and lets them prove who they are in seconds. Yoti uses 256-bit encryption to secure user details and puts individuals in control of their data. With Yoti, the user has to give consent before their details are shared. They also know exactly what details they are sharing and who they are sharing them with.
Sarah Gadsden, the Improvement Service’s interim CEO said, “We anticipate smartphone ownership will continue to grow and as technology evolves and mobile usage increases, we’re committed to maximise the use of secure mobile and digital technology to deliver information and services to citizens. Yoti will help us and our partners in the drive to transform essential public services and improve outcomes, meet our own and wider aspirations to deliver more information online, and give individuals a safer and more convenient way to prove their age and entitlement to access services. We selected Yoti due to their innovative, user-centric, secure and privacy-by-design approach.”
Robin Tombs, Co-founder and CEO of Yoti said, “We’re delighted to partner with The Improvement Service to give individuals a simpler and safer way of proving their age and entitlement, both in person and online. Verified digital identities will help transform local and national services in Scotland as businesses and public bodies have confidence individuals are who they say they are; creating more trust and transparency in the details shared. The Improvement Service’s choice of Yoti’s digital identity system for this exciting pathfinder will help individuals and businesses to get things done in a fast, simple and secure way, whilst protecting their valuable personal information.”
Earlier this year Yoti was selected by the States of Jersey as their official ID provider. Yoti is also working with WorldPay, NHS Ipswich Hospital, Jagermeister, Deltic (the UK’s largest nightclub chain), Freeads, Hiscox, NSPCC, CitizenCard, and collaborating with digital checkout leaders NCR. This latest partnership with The Improvement Service will help the company with its global ambitions to become the world’s trusted identity platform. The Yoti app now has over 1.8 million installs. For more information go to www.yoti.com or visit the app store on iOS and Android phones.
Notes to editors
About Yoti
Founded in 2014, Yoti is a global technology company on a mission to become the world’s trusted identity platform. Our free digital identity app is the new, safer way to prove your age on nights out, check out faster with age restricted items at supermarkets and save time and money proving your identity to businesses. It brings safer connections with the people you meet online as well as enabling secure website login with your biometrics instead of remembering passwords. All personal details are secured with 256-bit encryption and Yoti promotes a data minimisation approach. For more information, visit www.yoti.com.
- Yoti use AES 256 bit to protect your data. You control your data and decide exactly what information you want to share and who with.
- Yoti’s secure technology separates each of your details (photo, first name, last name and DOB etc.) and individually encrypts each piece of data.
- When you use Yoti to prove your ID you only share the data that is necessary (i.e. name or 18+). This puts people in control of their data.
- Yoti doesn’t store an image of your photo ID, we extract and transform your details into a secure digital identity that you control. Once accounts are created and verified all images of photo IDs are destroyed.
- Yoti’s encryption technique means that only the individual can access their data.
- Yoti cannot see or access any personal data after the accounts have been created and verified.
- Yoti accounts are verified by matching your selfie to a photo ID. The photo IDs are verified through machine learning techniques and then further checked by a security team based in the UK. A short video test is also required to prevent people creating fake accounts with photos or videos.
- The Yoti security team are in a secure ‘clean room’ that can only be accessed by approved, security cleared members of staff. They have no access to external networks and are not allowed to take their own devices into the clean room.
- Yoti provides multiple layers of encryption by securely storing each detail in UK based Tier 3 data centres.
- Yoti cannot track your activity or sell your data to third parties, because they have no access to personal user data once it has been created and verified.
About the Improvement Service
The Improvement Service (IS) is the national improvement organisation for local government in Scotland. Our purpose is to help councils and their partners to improve the health, quality of life and opportunities of all people in Scotland through community leadership, strong local governance and the delivery of high quality, efficient local services.
We do this by providing a range of products and providing advisory services including consultation and facilitation, learning and skills, performance management and improvement, and research.
In addition to our core products and services, the IS Business Plan 2018/19 sets out the three thematic priorities for our work this year – health and social care, children and young people and economic development.
Established in 2005, the IS is a partnership between the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE). It is a company limited by guarantee. For more information, visit http://www.improvementservice.org.uk
The Improvement Service has developed a portfolio of services to support digital transformation on a national scale in Scotland. These include myaccount, the secure authentication service operated and managed by the Improvement Service with Scottish Government funding, the National Entitlement Card, Data Hub, Parents Portal, bisaccount, OneScotland Gazetteer, Spatial Hub and tellmescotland. For more information, visit https://www.improvementservice.org.uk/digital-public-services.html.