Trust And Verification Undergird The Sharing Economy

Trust, not money, is what keeps the financial services world running. And it’s harder to come by post-pandemic with a crush of remote digital onboarding making CFOs and CIOs very nervous.

In the evolving sharing economy, trust takes on additional dimensions as people make their actual dwellings available for strangers to rent or, conversely, rent lodgings from a stranger.

Making sure that you are being yourself, so to speak, is the province of ever-smarter authentication systems that verify parties to a transaction and keeping things legit.

PYMNTS’ September Digital Identity Tracker® done in collaboration with Jumio delves into the latest in digital identity verification, especially as it pertains to the recovering sharing economy.

“Attracting more participants in the sharing economy requires that new and existing users feel comfortable sharing their homes, cars, assets or expertise. With account takeovers steadily on the rise and the amount of personal information available for sale on the dark web, a biometric authentication solution can ensure all future logins and transactions are being made by the original account owner throughout the life span of their account,” Philipp Pointner, chief product officer at Jumio, told PYMNTS.

‘Consumers Want To Feel Safe’

Noting, “The sharing economy, which is projected to reach more than $300 billion in value by 2025, is dependent on deep reserves of trust,” the Digital Identity Tracker® states, “Consumers want to feel safe while using sharing economy services and they want to believe their service providers are who they claim to be.”

Identity verification provider Jumio found that 20 percent of adults active with sharing services feel insecure — a clear indication that providers are expected to provide seamless solutions.

“When you create a new online account, we are capturing an image of the government-issued ID and a 3D face map. When future user authentication is needed, Jumio Authentication captures a fresh 3D face map and compares it to the original face map to unlock the user’s accounts,” Pointner said. “Ridesharing services can consistently re-verify drivers’ identities, homesharing platforms can quickly and reliably authenticate known customers and rental agencies can unlock their vehicles with a quick selfie.”

Factoring In Authentication

Given that “Almost two-thirds of U.S. consumers report wanting better security surrounding their personal ID information,” the Digital Identity Tracker® states that “77 percent of consumers would be more likely to engage in businesses’ services if they improved identity verification, and the share of consumers who have used two-factor authentication (2FA) has climbed to 35 percent — up from 26 percent last year and a meager 19 percent the prior year.”

That sounds like friction, but it’s really an opportunity for homesharing platforms and adjacent businesses to get on the ball in terms of new consumer expectations around trust.

Here’s a hint: don’t disappoint them the first time. If you do, they probably won’t return.

“Creating a secure yet convenient experience for on-boarding customers to sharing economy services is critical,” the new Digital Identity Tracker® states. “More than 111 million U.S. consumers rely on some form of sharing economy system for convenience in their daily lives, according to one PYMNTS report. Sharing economy businesses looking to keep their guests safe must deter data breaches that continually threaten organizations and can allow cybercriminals to steal usernames and passwords to access accounts.”