© Yoti
You may not know Yoti, but you'll probably hear about him soon. This British startup founded in 2014 has in fact developed an application for verifying a person's age based on a video selfie. A tool that could prove very useful for accessing certain online services. Aware of the importance of respecting personal data and the European GDPR, this service does not record any data.
Digital identity, a sector with a future
On its launched, the company launched a second product called Facial Age Estimation, reports Challenges. The latter is a hit, and it is used in particular on Instagram to check the age of a subscriber and by the French social network Yubo, our colleagues specify. Enough to allow the platform to protect its young users from certain suspicious profiles.
On the business model side, Yoti seems to have found the winning formula by charging between 10 and 29 euro cents for its verifications. Of course, everything is not perfect yet, and there is a margin of error in its estimates. Challenges reveals the extent: “From one year and three months for 6-12 year olds, this increases to two years and three months for 13-24 years old.” While this system also presents some biases, with errors identified in women of color aged 25 to 70 years old.
This clearly does not prevent the British company from looking to the future with serenity. While the digital identity market has a bright future, it is perfectly positioned in this sector.
Across the Channel, the UK Cinema Association, which represents the interests of the vast majority of British cinemas, has notably accepted Yoti applications to prove its age. This service can also be used for the sale of lottery tickets, tobacco and energy drinks, underlines Identity Week. The same goes for the FDJ in France.
Robin Tombs, CEO and co-founder of Yoti, declared last June: “This is a moment very moving to see that, through the development of this technology, we have made great strides in achieving our vision: to enable anyone in the world to prove who they are, simply by being themselves #8221;.
In its press release, the startup then added: “One of our founding principles is to make Yoti accessible to everyone. It is with this in mind that we will offer companies age checks using digital identification, free of charge. The goal is to help businesses around the world, of all shapes and sizes, verify age in the most privacy-friendly way, without cost being a barrier. ”
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