How to balance the teeter-totter of security and personalization

In 2020, Gartner found that almost 90% of businesses had a Chief Experience Officer (CXO) or equivalent role—roughly a 25% jump from 2017. Translation: a safe, seamless, and personalized user experience (UX) is no longer a nice-to-have.

Creating a user experience that checks all of those boxes is easier said than done. Siloed working environments, which hamstring collaboration between CXOs, CMOs—who sometimes manage CX initiatives—and security teams, don’t help. But a lack of identity intelligence is the foremost obstacle standing between CXOs and UX utopia.

What is identity intelligence? How do you obtain it and put it to use? You’ll find answers to these questions below, as well as examples of how identity intelligence boosts personalization and cybersecurity efforts.

Identity intelligence: the panacea

Unlike behavioral biometrics, which measure a user’s physical and cognitive traits for verification, identity intelligence relies on massive datasets, derived from scaled-out networks, that comprise insights on how legitimate users interact online.

Identity intelligence, when it’s done right (i.e., in real-time), is the most formidable defense against the growing threat of synthetic identity fraud. Synthetic “Frankenstein identities” composed of stolen emails, social security numbers, and other personal info don’t stand a chance against the preemptive nature of identity intelligence and its litany of comprehensive behavioral activity.

Powered by machine learning, real-time identity intelligence grows smarter with each interaction and spots fishy accounts before they can inflict harm. Understanding trusted user identities by tracking normal online behavior over time—versus identities that act in a fraudulent manner—is a crucial tool for security teams and subsequently CXOs looking to unlock a Trusted User Experience.

Trust is a must

Airtight security is foundational to any delightful user experience. B2C companies are more wary of fraud than ever before. Consumers, in lieu of identity fraud growing 109% last year, are equally fearful of fraudsters and desire a UX that doesn’t skimp on security. But convenience is coveted, too, and a Trusted User Experience—what every CXO should aspire to—is the ticket to a customer journey that is both secure and frictionless.

The Trusted User Experience facilitates both the account creation and returning customer journeys. Account creation often requires the customer to verify their email address or phone number by receiving an email to click on or a text message containing a one-time passcode (OTP). This is textbook friction. Trusted users, verified by an identity network and behavioral intelligence, can skip this step and head straight to their targeted content. 

Balancing security and convenience is also made easier through continuous authentication, which signifies a massive step towards a secure, passwordless future. 

Continuous authentication staves off authentication challenges that hinder UX (and revenue). According to the FIDO Alliance, 60% of online shopping sessions are abandoned by existing customers due to authentication challenges, which also run the risk of churn and reputational damage downstream. Once a trusted customer is authenticated, they can be issued a logged-in session extension that is continuously monitored as they traverse the online universe. Assuming their identity continues to operate normally, they’ll remain logged in when they return to the site or app issuing a session extension. Remember the last time you had to log in to Amazon? Probably not. That’s continuous authentication at work.

Verifying users instantaneously by keying in on the person and their device, and repeatedly authenticating them throughout a session, are hallmarks of real-time identity intelligence. The personalization piece of identity intelligence also plays a key role in facilitating UX.

Taking it personally

Modern users want to be safe online. They also want to be pampered and treated like they use your app every day, even if it’s their first time. In short, they want to be treated as individuals—not as a collective of consumers. 

Identity intelligence activates this level of personalization. Real-time trust signals such as geolocation, combined with a user’s behavioral intelligence, enable CXOs and other CX stakeholders to deliver a highly tailored experience that’s relevant to customers and ultimately more profitable for businesses.

Data privacy, of course, factors into the personalization discussion, so tapping into real-time identity intelligence from privacy-compliant networks is also important. However, a recent Experian report suggests the rise of a more forthcoming user: 57% of consumers are open to sharing data in service of stronger security, and 63% believe data sharing is worthwhile (up from 51% last year).

How to supercharge UX with identity intelligence

Have a hankering for Trusted User Experiences? Creating a seamless, secure, and personalized UX is easier than you might think.

The first step is to make sure you have a Customer Identity Access Management (CIAM) platform in place, such as Auth0, Okta, ForgeRock, PingIdentity, Strivacity, etc. A CIAM platform is where trust and risk decisions are made at the point of user authentication. The risk engine and orchestration aspects of a CIAM are what act on identity intelligence, and many of these platforms feature marketplaces with no-code implementation for partner solutions that expedite setup.

Even the leading CIAMs require a healthy diet of Grade-A, real-time identity intelligence to authenticate effectively. That’s where Deduce comes in.

The Deduce Identity Network, the largest real-time identity graph for fraud in the US, is a legitimate user’s best friend and a fraudster’s worst enemy. Powered by more than 500 million unique user profiles and over 1.4 billion daily activities gathered from 150,000+ websites and apps, Deduce’s identity intelligence solution recognizes trusted users accurately and preemptively. Deploy Deduce independently or stack it right on top of your existing anti-fraud infrastructure, seamlessly integrated into leading CIAM platforms, and launch a Trusted User Experience in just a few hours.

Want to see what Deduce’s real-time identity intelligence can do for your customer experience? Contact us today.