LinkedIn and Microsoft are bringing three new verification options to over 200 million LinkedIn users designed to help organizations be more confident that the people they are collaborating with are real and their work affiliations on their profiles are accurate.
According to Microsoft, organizations can use Verified ID, part of the Microsoft Entra identity security suite, to create customized digital employee IDs that reflect their brand and business needs. LinkedIn members will see an option to verify their workplace on their profile, and they can use their phone to get their digital employee ID from their organization and share it on their LinkedIn profile.
Microsoft says this provides an easier way to digitally verify a person’s education, skills and workplace affiliation.
Joy Chik, Microsoft’s president of identity and network access, says in a blog that Verified ID is built on open standards for decentralized identity, which operates on a “triangle of trust” model that involves an issuer, a holder and a verifier.
For instance, an organization can act as an issuer by cryptographically signing a digital credential and issuing it to an employee as a digital employee ID. As the credential holder, the employee can decide to share their credential with apps and websites, such as LinkedIn. Then the verifier can cryptographically authenticate that the digital employee ID is genuine and was issued by the place of work the employee claims. This approach represents a more secure, convenient, and trustworthy way to verify digital information at scale.
Best of all, because Verified ID is based on open standards, it can work with existing HR systems, as well as a range of identity systems, such as Microsoft Azure Active Directory, now part of Microsoft Entra product family, and even identity systems that are on-premises.
In addition, Microsoft and CLEAR are partnering to allow LinkedIn members to display their verified identity by using a U.S. government ID and U.S. phone number.
Microsoft, LinkedIn’s parent company, is also introducing the ability for LinkedIn members to verify their workplace with a company-issued email address from more than 4,000 companies. More companies will be added and eligibility will be expanded over time.
U.S.-based organizations will also be able to include verified information in job postings about who published the listing. LinkedIn will show whether the post came from an official company page and if they verified their work email or government ID.
In a LinkedIn post, Oscar Rodriguez, the company’s vice president of product management, says the company will expand the verification options globally over time.
“Through all these new, free features, we’re helping give you the confidence that who you’re connecting with and the content you come across is trusted and authentic,” Rodriguez says.
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