bredemarket

Is Your Organization (Not) Managing Your Identity Proofing Vendors?

A wildebeest process evaluator discovers that another wildebeest has no goals.

Today I’m doing something different.

Normally these blog posts are addressed to Bredemarket’s PROSPECTS, the vendors who provide solutions that use biometrics or other technology. Such as identity proofing solutions.
But I’ve targeted this post for another audience, the organizations that BUY biometrics and technology solutions such as identity proofing solutions. Who knows? Perhaps they can use Bredemarket’s content-proposal-analysis services also. Later I will explain why you should use Bredemarket, and how you can use Bredemarket.

So if you are with an organization that SELLS identity proofing solutions, you can stop reading now. You don’t want to know what I am about to tell your prospects…or do you?

But if you BUY identity proofing, read on for some helpful expert advice from the biometric product marketing expert.

Managing an identity proofing solution

When you buy an identity proofing solution, you take on many responsibilities. While your vendor may be able to help, the ultimate responsibility remains with you.

Here are some questions you must answer:

What are your business goals for the project? Do you want to confirm 99.9% of all identities? Do you want to reduce fraudulent charges below $10 million? How will you measure this?
What are your technology goals for the project? What is your desired balance between false positives and false negatives? How will you measure this?
How will the project achieve legal compliance? What privacy requirements apply to your end users—even if they live outside your legal jurisdiction? Are you obtaining the required consents? Can you delete end user data upon request? Are you prepared if an Illinois lawyer sues you? Do you like prison food?
What about artificial intelligence? Your vendor probably uses some form of artificial intelligence. What form? What does this mean for you? Again, do you like prison food?

Again…are you ready?

GAO, IRS, and DOA

So how do other organizations manage identity proofing solutions? According to Biometric Update, not well.

A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit found the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has not exercised sufficient oversight of its digital identity-proofing program…

As many of you know, the IRS’ identity proofing vendor is ID.me. The GAO didn’t find any fault with ID.me. And frankly, it couldn’t…because according to the GAO, the IRS’ management of ID.me was found to be deficient.

“IRS was unable to show it had measurable goals and objectives for the program. IRS receives performance data from the vendor but did not show it independently identified outcomes it is seeking. IRS also has not shown documented procedures to routinely evaluate credential service providers’ performance. Without stronger performance reviews, IRS is hindered in its ability to take corrective actions as needed.

“ID.me acknowledges that its identity-proofing process involves the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. However, IRS has not documented these uses in its AI inventory or taken steps to comply with its own AI oversight policies. Doing so would provide greater assurance that taxpayers’ rights are protected and that the technologies are accurate, reliable, effective, and transparent.”

So while ID.me meets the IRS’ key requirement of Identity Assurance Level 2 (IAL 2) compliance, is it performing well? The IRS needs to define what “performing well” means.

You would think the IRS had a process for this…but apparently it doesn’t.

Dead on arrival (DOA).

But I’m not the IRS!

I’ll grant that you’re not the IRS. But is your identity proofing program management better…or worse?

Do you know what questions to ask?

Let Bredemarket ask you some questions. Perhaps these can help you create relevant external and internal content (I’ve created over 22 types of content), manage an RFP proposal process, or analyze your industry, company, or competitors.

Let’s set up a free 30-minute consultation to assess your needs.

CPA

Blog Fast

A blogging wildebeest with a laptop crosses the finish line of a race.

Do you want to say something NOW?

Did you just get a strange email and want to talk about it NOW?

Blogs help you do that.

But how quickly?

On June 3 I received a strange email at 9:20 pm and blogged about it before 11:10 pm. To date that quickie post has enjoyed over 300 impressions on WordPress alone, and reactions there and on LinkedIn. Pretty good for a post that took less than two hours of work, including research.

Your mileage may vary depending upon your organization.

If you’re a solopreneur like me, you can get a blog out in minutes in an emergency.
If you’re a corporation it may take longer, but even if your process requires two drafts and approvals you can get something out within a week. Faster in an emergency.

Work with a blogger who provides both strategic and tactical experience to get your message out quickly.

Work with Bredemarket. Click below to set up a meeting.

CPA

When Robocars Eliminate Identity

wildebeest and greyhound in a driverless car; the wildebeest is holding a driver's license

From the Department of Unintended Consequences: different countries approach identity proofing in different ways. But what happens when the underlying assumptions disappear and make some identity proofing methods obsolete?

Identity proofing in the United States

In the United States, the primary public identity document for citizens and non-citizens is the driver’s license. These government identity documents, issued by individual states and territories, satisfy a variety of uses, including driving, buying alcohol, boarding a plane or entering a federal facility (eventually), or purchasing something.

There are two other common identity documents in the United States:

The passport. But not everybody has one.
The Social Security card. But this is like your underwear; you don’t show it to everybody.

So our de facto identity card in this country is the driver’s license, or an equivalent ID document issued by a motor vehicle agency. Even though driver’s licenses are used for a ton of purposes that have nothing to do with driving, the entire ecosystem for these IDs is driven by the needs of drivers.

Which is a smart idea, because just about everybody needs a driver’s license.

Right?

What I’m reading

I read a number of WordPress blogs, and one of the ones that I read has the title “The Last Driver License Holder…“

The abstract for the blog completes the sentence and clarifies it.

“…is already born. How Waymo, Tesla, Zoox & Co will change our automotive society and make mobility safer, more affordable and accessible in urban as well as rural areas.”

It’s certainly a provocative statement, especially if you’re a recent college graduate who just joined the California DMV and thought you were set for life. You’re not.

Even if the author’s conclusion is a complete exaggeration, we need to entertain the possibility that driverless automobiles may eventually improve so much that people won’t even need a driver’s license, except for the cranky few that want them.

Assume that the majority of people own driverless cars at some point in the future, and that these support complete automation with no driver intervention. Imagine the ripple effects:

The government motor vehicle agencies, who will be more than busy certifying the road worthiness of new automobiles, will start wondering why they are spending so much time issuing these IDs that no one uses.
Other agencies at the state and federal level, eager to expand their operations and budgets, will start asking why the motor vehicle agencies are the ones in charge of IDs, and why they should be providing IDs instead.
While the agencies fight this out, private companies that provide adult services such as alcohol, prostitution, pornography, and buying gardening implements will have to figure out how to ensure their customers are old enough for these services. Perhaps they will be forced to turn to age estimation because the person at the counter never bothered to get a driver’s license.

So now half the people don’t bother to get IDs, yet they still need IDs.

Now what?

Graber Olives and Arteco Partners

So I attended the previously announced meeting and learned that Graber Olives is reopening, in a partnership between Arteco Partners and the Graber family. If all goes well, harvesting and canning will take place at the end of this year (2025), with events following next year (2026) in a new indoor event hall and a wine bar.

And if one little kid is lucky, an Easter egg hunt.

As Bredemarket readers already know, it was rumored and then confirmed that the property was up for sale in 2024 after a bad 2023 Olive harvest. But the Graber family didn’t find someone suitable until Jerry and Nancy Tessier of Arteco Partners came along.

The only sour, um, grapes were shared by a woman who loudly and repeatedly complained about the AMPLIFIERS at prior pre-COVID outdoor events. Hopefully an indoor facility will mitigate this.

Oh, and Graber Olives may not make it back into your local Stater Brothers. But you will be able to buy them on 4th Street, online, and probably in specialty stores.

See the reel below.

Graber Olives and Arteco Partners.

No Chips in Rancho Any More

(Not real. Imagen 4.)

I have not lived in the Inland Empire as long as my in laws have, but I recognize the gravity of this announcement all the same. From KTLA:

“A Frito-Lay manufacturing plant in Rancho Cucamonga has stopped production after more than 50 years in operation, and potentially hundreds of workers are now looking for new jobs.

“On Monday, a spokesperson for PepsiCo Foods U.S., the parent company of Frito-Lay, confirmed that manufacturing operations at the Rancho Cucamonga facility have ended.”

The facility will not close entirely. Warehouse and distribution/fleet/transportation operations will continue.

In (hopefully) happier news, we are less than two hours away from the Graber announcement.

What is “Know Your Business” (KYB)?

I run in circles that use the acronym KYB, or “Know Your Business.” But I realize that many of you don’t use this acronym every day, so I thought I would explain it.

Let’s say that you encounter a business such as ByteDance or HiveLLM or Lorem Ipsum and you want to know more about it.

There are good reasons to understand a business before engaging with it.

“As financial institutions and other businesses have known for years, there are services such as “Know Your Customer” and “Know Your Business” that organizations can use.

“KYC and KYB let companies make sure they’re dealing with real people, and that the business is legitimate and not a front for another company—or for a drug cartel or terrorist organization.”

Even if you’re not dealing with extremist terrorists, you may want to have a better understanding of where the business is and/or who runs the business. Remembering that the legal owner of the business may not be the one who is actually operating it. For example, the Mob Museum documents the original ownership of the late Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas:

“Miami hotelier Ben Jaffe (part owner of the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach) owned the land on which the casino would sit, but Conquistador Inc. would build and operate the resort.

“It just so happened that Conquistador’s owner, “Dandy” Phil Kastel, had a long and fruitful partnership with Frank Costello, perhaps the nation’s most infamous gangster in the spring of 1957…. And it almost goes without saying that most ‘Miami hotel men’ who came to Las Vegas in this era were more than familiar with Meyer Lansky, another famous gangland name.”

Unfortunately for Costello, people soon knew HIS business:

“On May 2, 1957, while entering a New York apartment building, Costello was shot and wounded by Vincent “the Chin” Gigante on orders from rival Mafia boss Vito Genovese. Written on a piece of paper found by police inside Costello’s coat pocket was the exact gross win from the Tropicana as of April 27, 1957 — $651,284, less $153,745 in markers (loans to players), with the proceeds from slot machines at $62,844. The note mentioned $30,000 for “L” and $9,000 for “H,” likely money to be skimmed on behalf of Costello’s underworld partner Meyer Lansky and perhaps for Mob-connected Teamsters union boss James Hoffa. It was a big national news story.”

It’s best to know your business BEFORE it’s splashed all over the media.

OneTaste: Know Your (Convicted Forced Labor) Business

If I get my products from my vendor, why do I need to implement Know Your Business (KYB) or Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM)?

Perhaps Compliance Week has a good answer:

“About 27.6 million people around the globe are ensnared by modern slavery, which refers to people being forced to work and losing their freedom due to imprisonment, threats of violence, debt bondage, or retention of their identity papers, according to the United Nations’ International Labor Organization.”

Yeah, but who cares about Third World countries?

Tell that to the former owners of OneTaste:

“As proven at trial, between 2006 and May 2018, [Nicole] Daedone and [Rachel] Cherwitz obtained the labor and services of multiple young women who had turned to OneTaste for healing and spirituality by coercing them to perform labor, including sexual labor, for the defendants’ benefit.”

Would you want to do business with THAT company?

Although it has undergone an ownership and name change:

“n 2017, Ms. Daedone sold OneTaste for $12 million, prosecutors said. The former OneTaste.us website now directs visitors to The Eros Platform, a community that still promotes it affiliation with Daedone, Cherwitz and and their Orgasmic Meditation practice. The Eros Coaching Collective still advertises a three-session OM training package for $525.”

Will There Be FEWER States with Mobile Driver’s Licenses in the Future?

(Imagen 3)

Normally when states adopt a new technology, one state will first adopt it, followed by other states, until eventually all states adopt it. (Take REAL ID.)

It’s rare that a state adopts an emerging technology and then trashes it.

Last year

But that’s exactly what happened in Florida last summer, when the state withdrew support for its Thales mobile driver’s license (mDL) pending the creation of a new mDL from a new vendor.

Update as of June 2025…there isn’t one.

“The Florida Smart ID applications will be updated and improved by a new vendor. At this time, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles is removing the current Florida Smart ID application from the app store. Please email FloridaSmartID@flhsmv.gov to receive notification of future availability.”

This year

But hey, I’m sure Florida is working behind the scenes to develop a new mDL. After all, digital identity remains a federal priority.

Um…check Biometric Update.

“At the forefront of the Trump administration’s cybersecurity shift is the categorical removal of Biden-era digital identity initiatives which had encouraged federal agencies to accept digital identity documents to access public benefit programs and promoted federal grants to help states develop secure mobile driver’s licenses.”

Biometric Update is specifically referring to President Donald Trump’s Executive Order issued last Friday, which affects cybersecurity efforts in general. Lots of use of the Q word.

Next year?

But if states aren’t receiving federal funding to develop mDLs, and if states decide that only physical driver’s licenses are in their interest, then will mDL adoption slow?

Or may other states follow Florida’s lead and let their contracts with mDL vendors expire?

SWOT analysis advocates…this is a threat.

Oh, and by the way…don’t forget that moving from mDLs back to physical driver’s licenses leads to a certain loss of privacy…

Privacy.

Did I Subconsciously Inject Emotion in My “Impede” Reel?

Remember my “In the Distance” Bredemarket blog post from Saturday?

I embedded a reel in that post with the following text:

If their focus is elsewhere

My focus won’t impede

Since I had created the reel anyway, I repurposed it by sharing it on Bredemarket’s social media channels.

Including YouTube. You can see the YouTube short here:

Now when I shared it on YouTube, I did so with no context whatsoever. The caption simply read “In the Distance.” Without the words I wrote in the original blog post (I’ll get to two particular words later).

Yet by Monday morning the short had over 1,000 views. For Bredemarket’s YouTube channel, that’s a lot. Only three shorts have attained higher views: two about Tropical Storm Hilary, and one about squirrels.

But why?

Why?

The relative popularity of this short on YouTube is a mystery. Other than its brevity, it includes none of the elements of a successful video:

It does not use trending audio.
It does not use trending key words or hashtags.
Its message is obscure, if not downright cryptic.
Its visuals do not appeal to a mass audience.

Perhaps…

I have a theory that probably isn’t correct, but I’m going to entertain it anyway.

If this didn’t immediately occur to you, the reel subconsciously incorporates emotion. Emotion at the loss of my “former friends” as mentioned in the blog (but not on YouTube). Yes, some of the same former friends who forgot my birthday long ago.

Needy people, hungry people, it’s all the same. Picture from https://bredemarket.com/2024/01/02/pizza-stories-the-worst-time-to-read-a-pizza-post-on-social-media/.

So my wild theory is that the sense of loss, resignation, and renewed determination (I won’t impede on them) permeated the reel and subconsciously increased interest.

Or maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps there are just more wombat fans than I realized.

Regardless of the unexpected popularity of this YouTube short, it illustrates why emotions are now the seventh of the seven questions that a content creator should ask you.

I (always) need to improve my INTENTIONAL injection of emotions into my content.

And yours.

Do Your Partners Need Bredemarket’s Services?

I didn’t think of this marketing tactic myself. It was dumped in my lap.

One of Bredemarket’s clients has a partner marketing program, and the person running the program asked me if Bredemarket offered white paper writing services.

Why?

Not specifically for the client, but because the client’s PARTNERS may need these services.

So I told my client that if a partner requires white paper or other services from Bredemarket in the future, there are multiple options:

Work with me on an hourly basis at the $100/hour rate.
For text between 400 and 600 words (short writing service), I can bill a flat rate of $500.
For text between 2800 and 3200 words (medium writing service), I can bill a flat rate of $2000.
We can work out a flat rate for different lengths if needed.

(Yes, I publish my prices. If you need a 2¢ per word writer, look elsewhere.)

Here are the details on my “short writing service” and “medium writing service.”

Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service

Bredemarket 2800 Medium Writing Service