If I were to ask you where your online identity exists, you might struggle to list all of the places your personal information is stored. For most of us, the number is over 150 accounts and passwords per person, with everything from contact information to very intimate health information existing in databases all over the world. The downstream impacts of this are well understood. Annually over 37 billion records are lost. Identity fraud causes more than $700 billion in losses every year, and more than $35 billion in card not present fraud. People have lost faith in their security and privacy on the internet – and for good reason. 

Technology has advanced rapidly in the past 20 years – and it has served us well in many ways. But in addition to smart phones and social media, we’ve also ended up with a model where our private information is stored in countless centralized systems. Systems like passwords, centralized databases, and electronic records have evolved to become more secure, but they still put third parties in control of our data. 

At Avast, we envision a model where you are in control of your digital identity. You get to choose how and when and with which institutions you share it. We all deserve digital freedom, but you can’t have freedom without trust. That’s why it’s essential for all of us to be able to trust that people are who they say they are online – and also that we can do so without having to unnecessarily expose our personal information in the process. 

Many have followed the advancements made in an area called self-sovereign identity. This model, which draws on the strengths of decentralized finance to address the problem of identity online - how do we prove who we are online?

That is why I am so very excited to welcome Evernym to the Avast family of technologies. By creating solutions for  self-sovereign identity - which is instrumental to the creating a layer of trust – Evernym will be a core part of Avast’s vision of empowering people to achieve their true potential online. This work by their Chief Trust Officer, Drummond Reed, and others in the company has led to the development of innovative products and services based on decentralized digital credentials, which are helping to build a more trustworthy online experience. 

Evernym’s groundbreaking approach gives people autonomy over their online presence by keeping their personal information with them and out of centralized databases. They won World Economic Forum’s “Technology Pioneer 2021,” and they have been deeply embedded in industries such as travel and finance, where their technology is at the heart of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Travel Pass and also powers Bonifi’s MemberPass solution for community financial institutions.

With Evernym’s underlying technology and the deep expertise that the team brings to Avast, we can accelerate our mission to reimagine how trust is established online through decentralized identity solutions. It’s an incredibly exciting time to be working on this issue. I can think of no other issue that is as important to solve in developing a safer and more fulfilling online experience for us all and I could not be happier to welcome the Evernym team to Avast.