Trufina: Tackling the Tough Issue of Identity Assurance
Last week I had a stimulating conversation with Jim Kinchley and Chris Madsen, executives of Trufina, a “provider of online identity verification and identity management services, enabling individuals to verify their identity attributes online, and providing the identity management tools for sharing that verified identity information with individuals and websites across the Internet.â€
In October, I posted an article entitled Identity Trend 4: Identity Assurance, one of a series of posts about important trends in the Identity Management industry. In that post I proposed, “With the continual expansion of online fraud and other threats to online security and privacy, the need for Identity Assurance methods are rising. Being able to certify the that the correct Identity credentials are issue to the correct user before access is attempted is an increasingly critical issue.â€
A few days after I authored that post, I became aware of Trufina, signed up for an account, paid a small fee, and had my Identity verified through a series of online questions drawn from publicly available information about me that presumably only I would know. As evidence of that successful vetting process, I posted a Trufina badge on this blog (see right column). This badge visually represents that my identity had been verified by Trufina, and provides a way that blog visitors could request a Trufina ID Card with details I elect to share. Do you want to see how it works? Please click on the Trufina badge or click here, enter your email address, and I’ll send you a link to see my Trufina-verified Identity Card.
Trufina provides a public API to allow websites to take advantage of Trufina identity validation services. For example, the Naymz online Professional Reputation Network allows members to link their Trufina Verified ID to the Naymz profile. In such a case, the Trufina Verified ID badge is shown on the Naymz member profile. I don’t use the Naymz network as extensively as LinkedIn or Facebook, but neither of those more popular social networks have validated my Identity as well as Naymz has done, thanks to the Trufina process.
I look forward to seeing how Trufina progresses in the marketplace. We really need a critical mass of easily accessible, yet secure, Identity validation services to increase the level of trust and confidence in online relationships.
Mark, thanks for the kind words. To increase the utility of our services, we’re working hard to partner with websites that embrace the notion of giving members tools to increase trust and reduce fraud in online interactions. We’d be interested in hearing from your readers about sites they think would benefit from our services. For your readers that are interested in finding sites we’ve already partnered with, they can visit http://www.trufina.com.
Thanks again,
Jim
Comment by Jim Kinchley on December 10, 2009 at 2:47 pmJim: Thanks for stopping by. I’ll certainly pass onto you any feedback I may receive. I look forward to continuing our dialog.
Mark
Comment by Mark Dixon on December 10, 2009 at 2:50 pm