Today, Apple announced the launch of a new single sign-on unified ID platform at its WWDC 2019 annual developers conference.
According to TechCrunch, “[Apple is] truly transforming into a privacy-as-a-service company”, with many others referring to Apple’s new single sign-on account service as a “commitment to privacy”.
No doubt, Apple is definitely making a step in the right direction – we currently do not have alternatives to the Login with Google or Login With Facebook sign-ins.
Nonetheless, these alternatives must be open and permission-less. How can a digital identity be trusted if it isn’t open?
Although this may well be a sincere attempt by Apple to be “the good guys”, this is ultimately yet another silo that can never be established as an open standard. App developers are also forced to support Sign in with Apple if they want their app to appear in the Apple Store, which is neither open nor federated. As it stands, ID4me is the only global solution that establishes an open, federated, trustable ID standard. Furthermore ID4me allows companies operating in Europe to be fully GDPR compliant and provides users with a strong privacy guarantee.
What has not (yet) appeared in today’s big headlines is the information that Apple chose to build on the OpenID Connect standard. This means that Apple ID could be compliant with ID4me – if Apple adds the DNS record on iCloud.com, which is a simple step with the potential for a huge impact. We would welcome Apple to join the ID4me initiative and open their ID to the rest of the world.
The alternative is living in a world where login with Apple, Facebook and Google are the only login options for users. That is why it’s worth exploring and committing to ID4me today.
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