Death to Government Digital ID! Long live Government Digital ID?
Plus: Using a photo of your daughter to promote our app
Hi everyone, thanks for coming back to Customer Futures.
Each week I unpack the disruptive shifts around Empowerment Tech. Digital wallets, Personal AI and the future of the digital customer relationship.
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Hi folks,
Thought for the day: if you need to ‘onboard’ a customer to an ID provider, you’re doing it wrong.
Because digital identity will soon be added seamlessly to existing digital services. Fewer steps. Less friction. More trust.
A bit like the FinTech sector talks excitedly about ‘Embedded Finance’. Where customer payments can get added seamlessly, elegantly - and ‘embedded’ - into other digital transactions.
With lots of progress on ‘passive authentication’ services, and a wave of new, flexible digital ID wallets, I believe we will soon be talking about ‘Embedded Identity.’
Where digital ID won’t feel like an extra step or app. Instead, it’ll just feel like another trusted digital experience, but where you are instantly recognised, remembered and rewarded. But now under your control, transparently and auditably.
A while ago, the pioneering investment firm a16z said that “In the future, every company will become a fintech company”.
So I’m calling it: In the future, every company will become an identity company.
Because these new digital wallets and smart authentication channels are going to enable a new customer data shift. Where verified data about people will soon start flowing freely between and across organisations… but this time with consent, because it’ll be via the customers themselves.
Digital wallets won’t just be about payments or ID. They’ll hold all sorts of verifiable information that individuals will want to carry with them from service to service. Sharing their data when and where they need it, and when it matters.
Maybe that data sharing will be AI-enabled. But in many cases it won’t. The point is that soon every company will be sharing rich personal data with, and receiving verifiable data from, the customer themselves.
Reputation data. Entitlement data. Identity data. Using digital wallets, verifiable credentials and soon, new AI agent services. Working directly for the customer, not the business alone.
In the future, every company will be an identity company.
Enabling ‘Embedded Identity’.
In the right place, just when you need it. And gently pulled back, privately and securely, when you don’t.
There’s never been a more important time to help shape the future of being a digital customer. So welcome back to the Customer Futures newsletter.
In this week’s edition:
We’re using a photo of your daughter to promote our app to men aged 30–40… is that ok?
Death to the Government Digital ID! Long live Government Digital ID
I don’t need to read those pesky T&Cs - my AI Agent will do it for me
Are you just accepting these common CX myths?
New ‘AI memory’ at work - a breakthrough or a huge headache for business?
… and much more
So grab a warming, autumnal cinnamon chai latte, a comfy chair, and Let’s Go.
We’re using a photo of your daughter to promote our app to men aged 30–40… is that ok?
The brilliant Warren Hutchinson writes again about the latest uncomfortable news coming out about META’s use of our personal data.
We now hear that a personal ‘back to school’ moment has been used to promote Zuck’s Twitter copy-cat app called Threads.
“A Guardian article has recently exposed that a mother recently discovered that her daughter’s back-to-school photo with her name, her school, and her face was being shown to a 37-year-old man as a promoted post.
”The image was on a private account with just 237 followers.
“From the Guardian article: “...her Instagram account usually had modest reach but the post of her child attracted nearly 7,000 views, 90% from non-followers, half of whom were aged over 44 and 90% of whom were men.”
”No opt-in. No warning. Just... you know... policy.
“𝗜 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘁, 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲.
“So what’s Meta’s defence? That public content is fair game. The Terms and Conditions cover it all.”
Warren’s diagnosis is spot on. We don’t just need AI Agents to book us holidays, we need them to help us understand how and where our data is being used.
“This is a photo of your daughter being used by Meta to promote Threads to men aged 30–40. It’s something that Meta are doing right now. Are you OK with that?”
NOPE.
Nope.
All this real-time-bidding on personal data, ‘market-of-one’ BS, and the wider digital advertising hellscape, has been normalised. And it has to stop. Because social media is reaching a breaking point.
But it’s happening silently, and we’re all just nodding along in the For You tab.
It’s not OK.
Yet we can’t just keep jumping up and down any more. New aggressive data regulations, or even social outrage and disgust, will stop it. Nor will more Senate hearings or public demonstrations about this abuse of people’s data.
And that’s what it is. Abuse.
In 1900, whaling was one of the world’s largest and most valuable sectors. But then oil and gas extraction came along, and we no longer needed whale oil to light lamps.
The whaling industry collapsed. Along with the horrific animal cruelty. It was the NEW thing that displaced the old. Not some frothy new regulations about protecting whales or the whalers.
And the same thing happened with horses. There was so much manure on the streets of New York, and so much mess and smell, that they even started to design buildings with steps up to the front, away from the horse crap (the famous ‘Brownstones’).
Now, did regulations remove all the horse manure on the streets? Or protests? Or lobbying? No. It was the arrival of the motor car.
The best way to change behaviour - and indeed dislodge uncomfortable commercial models - is to introduce new models to replace the old.
Because hope is not a strategy.
Likewise, today we need new approaches to handle and protect our digital personal data. We’ll look back on this social media moment as farcical. Just like not having seatbelts in cars. And indeed whaling 100 years ago.
More words about META are not enough. We need action. And we need new personal data solutions - specifically ‘Empowerment Tech’ - to come quickly.
Else META will continue to use our private, personal data for its own uses, its own advertising, claiming that it was all fair game.
Warren said it right.
“𝗜 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘁, 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲”
Death to the Government Digital ID! Long live Government Digital ID
Apparently, the UK Government will soon be proposing a new ‘BritCard’.
And it’s causing a stir.
Some argue that it’s the great unlock towards GDP growth and prosperity. Others say it’s “a step towards mass surveillance and digital control, and that no one should be forced to register with a state-controlled ID system”.
I’m not going to predict what’s going to happen around the proposed ID plans. But it’s worth reading some of the latest perspectives, especially from those inside the ID sector and who have an expert handle on much of the detail:
Digital IDs for the UK: A ‘Courageous’ Gamble or a Smart Ecosystem Play?
Controversy ahead - the many challenges facing a UK government national digital ID scheme
It’s largely accepted that having digital ID infrastructure across a country can increase GDP. The question is how that infrastructure works.
As Richard Oliphant puts it, it’s about the choices to be made. Voluntary or mandated. Public or private sectors. Centralised or decentralised.
All I know is that right now, the UK stands out as one of the only nations in Europe without a national digital ID infrastructure that everyone can agree on.
And we need to get a grip on this mess.
I don’t need to read those pesky T&Cs - my AI Agent will do it for me
In 2012, FB bought Instagram for $1bn. Insta now makes $1bn in ad revenue every week. And accounts for nearly a third of all Meta’s revenue.
Wow.
And apparently, Insta is one of the best places to put digital ads online. But I guess if you’re a brand, ‘best’ means slightly less crappy than all the other digital ad options.
Look at the alternatives.
Google ads get a 4-5% click-through rate (CTR). On Instagram, ‘Feed Ads’ have a CTR of between 0.22% and 0.88%. ‘Stories Ads’ have a CTR between 0.33% and 0.54%
Are you kidding me? And Instagram is now making $1bn per week? For heaven’s sake, we need new models for digital ads. Right now. But we also need smarter ways to think about digital privacy around ads, and how these platforms make money.
The Internet Safety Labs (ISL) reviewed hundreds of privacy policies, many of which agreed that under CCPA/CPRA, behavioural advertising is “selling data”.
But for Instagram, it’s covered under
“Personalizing the Meta Products”
“Sharing of Information across Meta Companies”
“Providing Ads on Meta Products”
Transparency, yeah?
The ISL argues that ‘How we make money’ should be a core part of the privacy policy. Something Eve Maler first suggested back in 2008.
But even then, it’s not enough. Because we need more than digital ‘transparency’. We also need digital understanding.
Because my small brain can’t cope with the 30 hrs of reading all the T&Cs. Nor should it have to. Those long documents are written by lawyers, for lawyers.
Tired: not reading the privacy policy
Wired: Getting my Personal AI to do it for me
Soon, these sorts of personal T&Cs scans will be a simple extension to my digital wallet. And I’ll be able to make a data sharing decision before I hand over my personal data to a business.
By understanding how it makes money, not just what it does (or doesn’t do) with my data.
Are you just accepting these common CX myths?
So much is misunderstood about the digital customer experience. Which is why I loved doing this video series on the myths of CX with UJET’s Chief Business Officer, and CX expert, Baker Johnson.
Here’s the first clip of Baker and me unpacking some of the more common CX myths, and talking about why putting customers in control changes everything.
New ‘AI memory’ at work - a breakthrough or a huge headache for business?
This is an important move for Claude AI. About portable AI memory. But it’s also a huge new headache for employers.
Why?
Today at work, we get given co-pilots, email assistants and meeting transcription services. But soon our Personal AIs will be better for many more tasks. Over time, your PA will understand your learning style. How you prefer to communicate and when.
It’ll know how productive you are in different settings. And it’ll be tuned into the background noise of your daily life. How to handle the digital chaos that surrounds your 9-5 (Or these days, more like 8-8).
What happens when my AI at home is better than the one I get given at work? You can bet that employees will use their own AI at work anyway. Just like they started to use their own smartphones when their personal iPhone was better than the BlackBerry they got given at work.
So will businesses agree to ‘Bring Your Own AI’? BYOA?
Not likely.
Businesses barely survived the security and data risks when employees brought their own internet-connected devices into the workplace. So it’s about to get messy with Personal AI too.
But here’s the other angle: when AI memory gets portable, what happens to your AI co-pilot at work?
If you leave the job, can you take it with you?
Because it knows you the best, learns your style, your productivity hacks, and how to make you a super-efficient employee. Do you get to take that employee data with you? With all that highly personal information about your productivity? All that personal support? That intimate employee profile? And likely lots of confidential stuff about the company too?
No way.
It belongs to the business. And is a security risk if it walks out the door. So you’ll have to start again with another co-pilot or Personal AI.
We grandly talk about ‘portable learner records’, but what about the intimate AI assistants that are helping us learn in the first place? Helping us do our best work?
Portable AI memory is going to be a huge deal. Not least for sharing context across models. But it’s also going to be a headache for your company.
OTHER THINGS
There are far too many interesting and important Customer Futures things to include this week.
So here are some more links to chew on:
Paper: The First Person Project White Paper V1.0 - enabling Proof Of Human via networks, not biometrics READ
Post: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned To Love Agentic Anthropomorphism READ
News: The Netherlands doesn’t expect the EU digital ID wallet to be ready on time READ
Article: The biggest upgrade to Chrome in its history: AI tools READ
Post: Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) are incompatible with Consent READ
And that’s a wrap. Stay tuned for more Customer Futures soon, both here and over at LinkedIn.
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