Legislation
Articles
Feb 15, 2024
The Age Appropriate Design Code for businesses
This blog was updated in February 2024, following the ICO’s updated opinion on age assurance for the Children’s Code. In a nutshell the main changes include: Facial age estimation is now recognised as the most widely used age estimation approach, with high levels of accuracy. Self-declaration on its own is not sufficient for high-risk services. The ICO has also introduced a new term, the ‘waterfall technique’. This refers to a combination of age assurance methods. Companies should ensure that any age assurance system implemented has an appropriate level of technical accuracy, reliability and robustness, whilst operating in a fair way
Articles
Aug 05, 2020
New JMLSG guidance recognises the power of digital identity
On 1 June 2020, the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG) published its revised guidance for what is expected of regulated financial services entities in relation to the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing. The new guidance recognises the central role that digital identity and robust biometric technologies can play in ensuring regulated entities meet their anti-money laundering (AML) and counter terrorist financing (CTF) obligations. What is the JMLSG? The JMLSG is a private sector organisation that produces guidance to help the financial services sector meet its legal obligations in relation to AML and CTF. Its guidance isn’t
Articles
Jul 31, 2020
Strong support in the House of Lords for digital age verification
On Monday 20th July, several members of Lords gave strong support for digital age verification, including Baroness Neville-Rolfe, Lord Clement-Jones, Lord Stevenson of Balmacara, Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth, Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom, Lord Holmes. It’s fair to say that all concerned want effective digital age verification, even those that were opposed to the development of digital age verification during the Lords debate such as Baroness Pickering and Baroness Williams. But for it to be effective, it needs to be standards based and meet the requirements of industry stakeholders and the public. What was NOT clear on the floor of the
Articles
Apr 28, 2020
Good Practice Guide (GPG) 45
At the end of 2019, the GPG (Good Practice Guide) 45 was updated by the GDS (UK Government Digital Services). The guidance on how to check and verify someone’s identity now reflects new methods, such as reading the biochip in ID documents, such as an e-passport. The GPG 45 is also technology neutral as it is out-comes focused, rather than process-focused. As a digital identity provider, we help organisations meet low and medium levels of assurance when checking identity, and we can also support organisations that need to meet a high level. We’re looking forward to the imminent publication of the
Articles
Jan 14, 2020
The Fifth EU Money Laundering Directive is arriving in the UK - here are a few things you need to know.
The Government’s amendments to the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Regulations (MLR) are coming into force. This is the result of the transposition of the EU’s Fifth Money Laundering Directive, as well as a set of standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). These amendments extend the obligations to meet the MLR requirements to other sectors, which means that they will be obliged to perform ‘Know your Customer’ (KYC) checks and potentially monitor certain transactions. For example, cryptoasset activities will now fall under the scope. Furthermore, businesses will also need to consider new high-risk factors when determining whether
Articles
Apr 12, 2019
New regulations to tackle underage online gambling
Last year, a Gambling Commission audit found that an astounding 55,000 British children aged 11-16 year olds were classed as problem gamblers. The results also revealed that up to 450,000 11-16 year olds gambled on a regular basis. While the problem exists across offline and online gambling, the growing nature of the online sector makes it imperative for there to be more safeguards in place. As of 2018, The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) reported that the market’s revenue hit £14.4 billion, of which £5.3 billion came from online gambling. When it comes to identity and age verification for gambling customers,