Google Forms Android Ready SE Alliance To Drive Digital ID Adoption

In a move to help drive the adoption of digital keys, mobile identification and eMoney tools, Google has formed the Android Ready SE Alliance to facilitate the creation of open-source, validated and ready-to-use SE Applets.

“Most modern phones now include discrete tamper-resistant hardware called a Secure Element (SE). We believe this SE offers the best path for introducing these new consumer use cases in Android,” according to a Google blog post on Friday (March 26).

Google said it partnered with secure element (SE) vendors — Giesecke+Devrient, Kigen, NXP, STMicroelectronics and Thales — to launch the General Availability (GA) version of StrongBox for SE. The applet “is qualified and ready for use by our OEM partners,” noted Google. 

“OEMs that adopt Android Ready SE can produce devices that are highly secure and allow for remote updates to enable compelling new cases as they are introduced into the Android platform. Consumers will benefit from their devices being more secure and updatable with new capabilities,” according to the blog.

These digital features will work on phones, tablets, wearables, Android Auto Embedded and Android TV. The alliance was formed to “enable consistent, interoperable and demonstrably secure applets across the Android ecosystem,” according to Google’s Android Ready SE page for developers.

The alliance also provides Google and the SE vendors with “a growing list of tested open-source implementations of hardware-backed security applets for new and emerging use cases” — digital keys for cars and homes, digital identity credentials like mobile driving licenses and passports, and digital wallets.

Biometrics moved into the spotlight during the pandemic as the country and much of the world turned to contactless processes, according to the June 2020 PYMNTS Digital Identity Tracker, which was done in collaboration with Jumio.

The COVID-19 pandemic created a perfect storm for cybercrime as a digital-first way of life quickly became a necessity. The accelerated adoption of digital ID solutions has made it possible for traditional financial institutions and challenger banks to verify customers for new accounts, money transfers, loans and more.