2021: January

Owned by Colin Wallis (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Feb 02, 2021
4 min read

Hello everyone 

This is the running update from the Executive Director. Have questions or comments? Suggest some added information or edits? Contact Colin at kantarainitiative dot org.

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What a flying start to the year!  There can't be any Januarys in public memory packed with so much drama, sadness and hope, inspiration - if not joy. Certainly a flying start for the Kantara state.

You'll see a press announcement any day now regarding another service provider's component/partial service that has been approved under Kantara's Identity Assurance Trust Framework.  We also understand that another contract has been signed between a global service provider and an assessor to undertake a conformity assessment against Kantara's NIST 800-63-3 Class of Approval.

For many organisations January heralds the commencement of a new financial year where plans and budgets begin to be put into action.  Kantara is eternally grateful for the membership and sponsorship that results from the strategic decisions taken by organizations to invest in our community for the betterment of the wider digital identity and privacy ecosystem.  Remember that each existing Individual or Organization level member in good standing that introduces a prospective Organization level member that subsequently pays its member dues before the introducing member's next renewal anniversary, gets 25% of the new member's membership level rebated off the introducing member's membership renewal to a maximum of 100% of the introducing member's membership level. At Kantara, everyone benefits!

Thank you for rejoining ID Crowd!  It's great to have you back, as we celebrate the renewals from the Department of Internal Affairs, New Zealand Government, Board Director digi.me, Accredited Assessor Zygma, Patient Centric Solutions, and NeoCapita in Australia. 

Members will be aware of the Board's proposal to consider adding all four Directors-at-Large candidates to the Board.  An All-Member-Ballot for the complete slate will arrive in your Inbox later this week.  Should the All-Member-Ballot be successful, all four will join the Board.  The Board continues to develop action plans on its priority areas to pivot the organization onto both its revised mission - to grow and fulfill the market for trustworthy use of identity and personal data - and that builds towards its vision to see the equitable and transparent exchange of identity and personal data for mutual value.  Finally, Ken Dagg has joined the Staff cohort to pick up the Board Secretariat duties in a very busy period of transition for the Board.

Kantara community Groups and staff alike, had packed agendas over January.  Kantara joined forces with the Future Identity Council (FIC) to submit a detailed response to AAMVA's RFI regarding setting up a Digital Trust Service, essentially a public key store, in their pursuit of rolling out mDL across the US, though a sizable portion of our joint response was directed to what global mDL Governance might look like (think ICAO for passports for a sense of the scale).  Given how busy both organizations were, FIC's Gail Hodges and myself brought it home largely ourselves (the exception being the Privacy questions - thank you again John Wunderlich!) within the very tight timeframe.  Both organizations will use February to play it back into our respective communities to ensure that we captured your perspectives correctly, and if not, make any changes known to AAMVA.  And while mentioning the US, Treasury reached out to invite Kantara, along with a range of private sector companies and industry associations, to a US Financial Sector Policy Roundtable on February 9th.  While unfortunately a closed session, members can take some comfort from the fact that around 25% of invited guests are Kantara members and liaisons, and are on the slate to speak (as well as Kantara itself).

We celebrated International Data Privacy Day wonderfully, with the launch of the Advanced Notice & Consent Receipt (ANCR) WG along with related events continuing through the weekend.  It was fitting therefore that Sunday, January 31st was the deadline for comments on the 2nd Working Draft of ISO/IEC TS 27560 Consent Record Information Structure, and it was the ANCR WG that developed the comments fed back to ISO through Kantara's Liaison with ISO SC27 Working Group 5.  As we circle the globe, I should mention the interactions we had with Australian, New Zealand, UK and US Government agencies this past month.

Do you like the new website? Take a look and please let us know. 

Kind regards,

Colin

Around the Houses:

Marketing:

Program, Work Group and Discussion Group Updates:

  • You can always keep up with the latest news from the Work and Discussion Groups directly on the Leadership Council's Blog. See the list of public groups here.

  • As always, our Specifications, Recommendations and Reports are available for download from our Reports and Recommendations web repository - now with frictionless access.  

  • Not sure where to find things? Membership Bella, Trust Framework Operations & Assurance Director Ruth, Business Development Ambassador Chris and myself, together with the Kantara IT team consisting of Sebastian and Gonzalo led by Armin  are only too willing to assist.  Contact them here.

Events: See them all here!