Safe 14 – Identity as a tool in a global crisis

While the word continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic head on, it’s important to find the glimmers of hope among the bad news. Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen communities in all countries across the globe come together to play their part in improving quality of life for people everywhere, and amazing ways in which technology has kept people connected, safe and able to continue working.

Proving your location without compromising your data rights We’re proud to be working with Trust Stamp on an application enabling individuals to prove their location history without exposing any personal data.

How does Safe 14 work? It irreversibly transforms facial biometric data from periodic selfie check-ins and in doing so establishes a ‘Trusted Presence’ for the user using a multi-modality location beacon. Locations are stored encrypted with the tokenized identity of the user, but no other user data is stored, thus protecting data and privacy rights. Safe14 is designed to enhance trust on all levels of interaction between the user and any organization.

What are the plans for its use? While patent applications have already been filed in the United States and United Kingdom, Trust Stamp is providing a zero-cost license to government, health, NGO and other non-profit users for the purposes of COVID-19 management.

An important alternative to full surveillance and tracking

When asked about the need for Safe14 when over 20 countries have already implemented COVID-19 related surveillance and tracking infrastructures, Trust Stamp CEO and Cofounder, Gareth Genner commented, “Personal identifying information can be used outside of the scope of necessity, blanketed by a lack of transparency. The pernicious nature of misuse is accentuated when the line between need and abuse is blurred. By anonymizing all identifying data, we can help governments and NGOs to leverage the granular information needed to fight the spread of COVID-19 while maintaining individual dignity, autonomy, and security during this extraordinary time in human history.​

10Clouds’ CEO Maciej Cielecki said, “We’re proud to be working with our long-term client Trust Stamp on this new project, which we believe can play an important part in the ongoing fight against COVID-19. We believe that data integrity and personal privacy cannot be compromised, even in these difficult circumstances. This is an example of how technology can bridge the important gap between freedom of information and a government’s need to keep its society safe during a pandemic.”