How government entities can protect consumers by 'seeing the whole picture'.
The stress to protect consumers from burgeoning financial fraud, scams, and anti-privacy schemes continues to mount. Government legislators are taking notice – and crafting policies to lessen, and even alleviate, the burden of vulnerability consumers face with each transaction. But are they able to 'see the whole picture'? Do they have complete data sets? The short answer – not yet.
Governments have an obligation to protect consumers by encouraging private systems to adopt technologies that promote protection. Technologies that eliminate data silos through real-time data capture and transparent, secure bi-directional sharing of information and intelligence should be explored.
Gaps in data and/or partitioning, often result in these data silos, creating fragmented histories of consumer behaviors, gaps that lend to opportunities of misunderstanding within the consumer story – a ripe landscape for fraudsters.
Recent innovations in the fight against fraud predicate on comprehensive data sets by combining multiple data types, including multi-channel interaction data, intelligence and behavioral biometrics in real-time to fully understand the consumer. This knowledge creates a comprehensive story that allows for the prevention and detection of fraudulent activity versus solely the management of fraud.
Real-time multi-channel interaction data is the compilation of engagements undertaken by a consumer in real-time along their journey with a particular organization. Through sophisticated data capture technology, the ability to connect consumer interactions over a company's mobile app, website and call center provides a more accurate understanding of the consumer and their needs. When combined with credible intelligence, this information is vital in discerning legitimacy.
Third-party technologies exist to capture aspects of intelligence; however, compliance standards and questionable data practices often muddy the waters and don't provide true intelligence collection and interpretation across channels. First-party intelligence capture allows organizations to control the data they collect, where it's stored, how the data is conceptualized and ultimately how it's used. This method of data capture allows for 100% compliance in data capture regulation, leaving no lapse or data loss to fill gaps vital to understanding and identifying the consumer.
Perhaps one of the most innovative ways to discern real from fake, behavioral biometrics amplifies consumer understanding. Data centered around the actual behaviors of real customers helps to detect obscure behaviors associated with fraudulent interactions. From detecting the typical time or location of user logins, swipe speed or mouse direction, dominate hand usage, hesitation, typing speed or more, organizations can accurately build a profile to understand each legitimate consumer interaction with their business systems.
While on their own, these advanced capabilities help discern abnormalities indicative of fraudulent behaviors. However, when combined with additional real-time multi-channel interaction data and comprehensive intelligence, prevention and detection of fraud becomes much more feasible. The power to leverage a complete data set restores consumer confidence, while driving favorable economic impact.