IDMarc
Reliable Authentication to Combat Identity Theft, Fraud, and Terrorist Travel
Digimarc is a leading innovator in digital watermarking technology — used today to protect financial instruments, music, movies, photographs and identity documents from piracy and counterfeiting.
Digimarc® IDMarc™ digital watermarking is a covert security feature for identity documents that enables trusted machine authentication of driver licenses and other IDs. Imperceptible to the human eye, IDMarc can easily be read by many commonly available document scanners equipped with special software. These scanners read and decode the watermark feature to detect counterfeits, photo swapping and data alteration — the most common methods of creating fake documents. IDMarc is woven into the artwork of the secure ID so that it takes no additional real estate on the card, allowing implementation with both new and existing ID designs. It requires no special inks or materials, and is a proven, low-cost and highly effective security feature to aid in post issuance inspection.
20 U.S. States have now adopted IDMarc in their driver licenses and more are being added all the time. Currently, tens of millions of circulating driver licenses currently carry the feature, and in several states more than three quarters of circulating licenses are protected by IDMarc. By the end of 2007, IDMarc is projected to be incorporated into 1 of 2 U.S. driver licenses produced.
Winning the Battle Against Identity Theft and Fraud
IDMarc closes the critical gap in the fight against identity theft, fraud, and terrorist travel. While the driver license and other ID cards have become more secure and tamperproof, the most secure credentials, production and enrollment processes fall short if the ID is unable to be authenticated quickly and with confidence.
The U.S. driver license has become the de facto citizen ID and gateway to a wide range of services and privileges, such as boarding a plane, opening a bank account, obtaining credit or purchasing age-restricted products. ID inspectors vary greatly in their experience and ability to detect fraudulent IDs, and having more than 200 different driver licenses in circulation, it is virtually impossible to accurately inspect and authenticate each one using visual methods alone. The answer is the reliable, machine-readable capabilities that IDMarc offers.
And, unlike most machine-readable security features, IDMarc can carry unique data only for authentication purposes without using the cardholder's personal data. This protects citizen information and eliminates the risk of compromising cardholder privacy.
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