Mastercard is Acquiring Identity Verification Company Ekata for $850M (techcrunch.com) 5
As online identity management grows in importance, Mastercard swooped in this morning and bought identity verification company Ekata for $850 million. From a report: Mastercard certainly sees the rapid digital transformation that is happening in online commerce, a move that was accelerated by COVID. It's a transformation that once started isn't likely to change back to the old ways of doing business, even when we get past the pandemic. With Ekata, the company gets a solution that can verify the online identity of a person making the transaction in real time using various signals that can indicate if this is fraudulent or true as they open an account or transact business. The company provides a score and other data that predicts the likelihood this person is who they say they are. It's not unlike a credit risk score, except for identity. That was one of the primary reasons Mastercard decided to acquire Ekata, according to Ajay Bhalla, president of cyber and intelligence solutions at the company. "With the addition of Ekata, we will advance our identity capabilities and create a safer, seamless way for consumers to prove who they say they are in the new digital economy," Bhalla said in a statement.
and also (Score:2)
it will help MasterCard sell that info to ad-droids. Thanx MasterCard, it is good know you have your customers interests at heart.
Re: (Score:1)
well yes, but.. (Score:2)
Yes, it is a good thing to be able to have a better idea if a transaction is fraudulent as it is a real problem that online payments face, but..
The but is that in real life people do strange things that are not fraudulent.. real life is full is really weird things if you include enough people in the group. Basically a lot of things that no fiction writer could even do dream of happen every day in the real world...
Just more spyware (Score:2)
Is this intrusive? yes. Is this better than PayPal, Ebay, Amazon, your internet provider, your bank, your federal government, your local government, your hospital, all demanding you installing their app, which is always spying on you? Definitely.
Many online services are doing this anyway: It's obviously easier if they can see that your phone and credit card are in the same place, hence the spying. I refuse to install check-in type apps, like those already listed, or the usual spyware (Facebook, Instagr