Recent data breaches, hacking cases and problems with centralized data show us that consumers are increasingly vulnerable to violations of their personal data.  This threat has prompted regulation, starting with the GDPR, that is now being implemented at the state and provincial levels in both the U.S. and Canada. Handling customer data grows more complex in a landscape of evolving regulation. Businesses must realign operations to adapt. New technology is being developed to enable secure user-controlled privacy, and a new ATIS initiative helps operators understand it.

Recent innovations now make it possible to establish a self-sovereign, or self-managed, identity (SSI) along with verifiable credential proofs of information. With this SSI and related information, a user can control with whom they share their information. SSI can unlock personal data in a way that fosters greater trust between consumers and businesses, while also helping companies comply with privacy regulations.

ATIS’ User-Controlled Privacy Using Self-Sovereign Identity initiative enlists a collaborative approach to specifically examine how the traditional identity stack needs to adapt to the new regulatory environment, how a new SSI standard can be applied across use cases and how SSI can help operators comply with new data privacy mandates.