What does it mean to build an identity system that is ethical? Jim McDonald and Jeff Steadman are joined by Elizabeth Garber, Executive Director of IDPro and marketing lead for the OpenID Foundation, for a conversation spanning ethics in digital identity, the tension between privacy and safety, biometric exclusion risks, and how practitioners can use structured frameworks to navigate these discussions productively. Elizabeth shares her three-part career journey, the latest from the IDPro community, and previews her upcoming keynotes at EIC Berlin and Identiverse Las Vegas.

Connect with Elizabeth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethgarber

IDPro Discount - New members get $25 off their first year of membership: https://idpro.org/idac/

Ethics and Digital Identity by Henk Marsman: https://bok.idpro.org/article/id/104/

Ethics for Digital Identity and Identity-Driven Algorithms by Mike Kiser: https://bok.idpro.org/article/id/105/

Human Centric Digital Identity white paper: https://openid.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Human-Centric_Digital_Identity_Final-v1.1.pdf

Connect with us on LinkedIn:

Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/

Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/

Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.com

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro and Jim's allergy research

03:42 Conference announcements: EIC and Identiverse

06:00 Welcome Elizabeth Garber

07:04 Elizabeth's three-part origin story

11:55 IDPro mission and the identity community

18:13 Membership, CIDPRO certification, and the Body of Knowledge

21:17 IDPro Slack community

23:40 IdentiBeer and local meetups

26:26 IDPro listener discount at idpro.org/idac

29:00 Operationalizing ideas in IAM

32:19 Ethics in the IDPro Body of Knowledge

33:30 Defining ethics in technology

34:19 The trolley problem and moral consistency

37:10 Big tech, privacy, and law enforcement

39:28 Where practitioners start with ethics

43:30 Biometric exclusion and the Uganda story

49:00 Privacy vs. safety: a false choice?

53:48 The case for consistent ethical frameworks

57:53 Elizabeth's EIC and Identiverse talks

59:49 Improv comedy and expensive hobbies

1:07:25 Wrap-up

Keywords: ethical IAM, digital identity ethics, IDPro, identity and access management, privacy, safety, biometrics, exclusion, Elizabeth Garber, GAIN Digital Trust, OpenID Foundation, Body of Knowledge, Ethical Canvas, zero knowledge proofs, passkeys, IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, EIC Berlin, Identiverse