In 2010, ID.me began as a Single Sign On that empowered members of the military to efficiently prove their service online in a way that organizations could trust without checking a physical ID card. This capability allowed eligible users to rapidly prove their military affiliation online via one login to access employment opportunities, military discounts, and non-profit programs aimed towards the military. In 2013, ID.me expanded coverage to include strong assurance in the legal identity of all Americans, authoritative status coverage for students, teachers, first responders, and government employees, and multifactor authentication.
Today, ID.me is one of four companies in the United States certified by the federal government to authenticate the legal identity of Americans to the highest level possible in order to access sensitive personal information like tax returns or military service records. Last month, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs selected ID.me as the Identity & Access Management platform to provide a unified authentication experience for VA, including ID.me's Single Sign On, DoD's Single Sign On, and authentication smart cards via PKI.
The founder Blake and I were roommates in grad school and he's the example that every Post-9/11 veteran looks to when starting a venture-backed software company.
@tombielecki@mslagh thanks, Tom. I appreciate that feedback. It's certainly valid. The tricky part is balancing our vision and what our infrastructure is capable of doing versus where we are today. Identity is fundamentally about portability and acceptance. We've built a broad network in retail, ticketing, ecommerce, and non-profits so we can explain that to users and they can go use our tech at websites in those sectors. On the other hand, government and high assurance relying parties are just now adopting our tech so our SSO isn't portable to those orgs today. For example, VA is the largest federal agency using our tech -- and the first govt agency to adopt a federated approach to identity in the US -- but it will be a few months before their biggest apps have our SSO integrated. Once we have more federal agencies, we will revamp the home page in a big way. But it's tricky balancing what our solution is capable of doing versus what it can actually do for users today.
It says your login email will always stay the same, even as you add new IDs; does that also mean that once you create an account, it's unable to be changed?
@maxwellhallel that is more of a temporary security feature to comply with govt regs. Come mid to late July, we'll introduce some MFA options, and, in tandem, allow for multiple e-mails to be tied to your Wallet.
I like the idea; however, my only issue is the logo. I saw it while scrolling and immediately thought of TD Bank - it has a very similar look, font face, and colour.
@nick_wesley that's fair. We went with green because a) it connotes trust and b) there are way too many blue social logins. Any resemblance to TD Bank is pure coincidence but we get your observation. At least it's better than the new Instagram logo? :-)
@blake_hall Haha I'm not disagreeing with it in any way, just saw the resemblance and perhaps others might too. I agree, forget that silly instagram logo!
@plurnt our service is focused on the US right now but our infrastructure is country agnostic and we are actively bidding on international opportunities.