Mvine and iProov recently announced the trial of their COVID-19 immunity and vaccination passport in the UK.

“Unlike some other digital solutions for COVID-19, this technology reduces the burden on frontline services and cost-effectively assures a secure and safe way to enable the return to work, return to school and return to the kind of life that people want to lead,” said Frank Joshi, director at Mvine. 

This passport allows a person’s test results or vaccination status to be registered and proved on an app without disclosing the identity. The hope is that, through this technology, people will be able to safely return to work, school and travel.

How It Works

The app is updated through a multi-step process.

After giving a patient the vaccine, clinics will be able to create an online certificate using a smartphone or tablet. The certificate will not include names, addresses, NHS numbers or any other identifying information. That way the patient’s identity will not be revealed.

iProov’s chief executive Andrew Bud emphasized the importance of privacy in this step: “Ensuring consumer trust, security and privacy is essential to the success of projects in this space. iProov enables all three.”

Next, the patient receiving the vaccine will be asked to upload a picture of themself to their electronic certificate. This image will be used to verify the individual whenever the vaccination status needs to be proved.

Finally, whenever the individual wants to access the certificate, facial recognition will confirm their identity using the saved picture.

One of the biggest advantages of this technology is that it can easily be integrated with existing NHS infrastructure: “Without the need for an extensive new infrastructure, the directors of public health will learn how our innovation is used to promote public health and protect citizen privacy,” said Joshi.

The Release of the Application

The app is set to be tested by directors of public health within the NHS. The two trials are expected to be completed by March 31, 2021, after which the application can be released for use by the public. 

Technologies such as this app will continue to move our world forward and back to normalcy. Most recently, Microsoft, Salesforce, Cerner, Epic and Mayo Clinic announced a collaborative effort to work on a similar digital passport system. In addition to this collaboration, there have been a series of other health passports released as well, such as the products from GoodHealth Pass and IATA.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Sarah Raza is a Tech Innovation Fellow with a background in computer science from Stanford. She is passionate about exploring the implications of increased usage of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Contact Sarah Raza at sarah@identityreview.com.

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