CEO Shufti Victor Fredung Speaks at US Congress Hearing on Digital Privacy

Originally Published on Market Watch. 

London, 26 July 2021 – A congressional virtual hearing was held on the 16th of July 2021 by the US Financial Services Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, examining key points related to digital privacy. 

Speakers at the hearing included experts in the field of digital technology and security. Victor Fredung, the CEO of Shufti, was invited to give his testimony at the hearing and emphasized how Shufti is making the financial structure secure through the use of AI technology for identity verification. 

The hearing entitled “I Am Who I Say I Am: Verifying Identity while Preserving Privacy in the Digital Age” discussed a variety of issues, including the future of digital identity, how best to protect data and digital privacy, making AI more inclusive and diverse, and the use of technologies, such as blockchain. 

At the hearing, Victor Fredung mentioned his support for the “Improving Digital Identity Act of 2020” and explained how a unified framework is needed in the United States due to vast variations in ID document types and regulatory requirements across the country. 

“We strongly suggest the pursuit of a universal framework that each state (in the US) needs to follow when it comes to the selection of ID documents and a unified requirement when it comes to what information needs to be verified and how verification should be performed in all states,” stated Fredung. 

The hearing also highlighted the emerging threat of identity theft in the US, where Rep. Bill Foster stated that the FTC received over 1.3 million complaints related to identity theft from US consumers in 2020. 

Responding to this, Fredung added that since 2017, Shufti has been combating identity theft by utilizing AI and ML models in its identity verification solutions. With the help of document authentication, anti-spoof checks, liveness detection, and optical character recognition (OCR) technology, fraudulent documents and identity thieves are detected with an accuracy rate of almost 99%. 

Fredung further added that while the use of blockchain for data sharing and storage is in its early stages at the moment, “it is definitely something to look out for in the future”. 

DiRoma Eck & Co. LLP., the Washington-based advisory and government relations firm that assisted Shufti in getting the opportunity to speak at the hearing, commended the issues raised by Fredung. “Shufti’s CEO, Victor Fredung, provided the Financial Services Committee with valuable and insightful testimony from the perspective of the AI-powered digital identity verification industry. The U.S. Congress will benefit from Shufti’s testimony as it continues to legislate and conduct oversight of the banking and financial technology industries,” said Michael DiRoma, Co-founder and Partner, DiRoma Eck & Co. LLP.

About Shufti 

Shufti is globally acclaimed for providing a rapid, secure, and compliant means of performing digital identity verification. Its AI-based IDV services have one of the highest rates of accuracy and are offered in 230+ countries and territories. By supporting 3000+ identity documents in 150+ languages, Shufti has proven to be ideal for eliminating the risk of digital fraud while maintaining regulatory compliance with GDPR and AML/KYC obligations. 

For more information:

Damien Martin,

Marketing Executive
Shufti
[email protected]
+44 1225 290329