Elections and government services are two functions that become more secure and efficient after the introduction of national digital ID programs, says the former president of Estonia, a world leader in online authentication. But those programs need massive buy-in from citizens.

Oberthur Technologies’ Lasink solution has started to be deployed across Costa Rica for the country’s national ID program; Equiniti and Daon rollout mobile on boarding for UK banks; the EU awards contract for biometric visas to Accenture, Safran Identity & Security and Atos.

Gemalto is supporting Cameroon with the deployment of polycarbonate eID cards; XTec wins U.S. Department of State award PIV contract; the Government of the Macao has extended its contract with Veridos for the country’s smart card identity system.

Physical identity documents aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. The personal identity market was valued at $8.7 billion in 2016, and is forecast to reach $9.7 billion by 2021.

Gemalto was selected by Jordan’s Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology for the country’s new citizen ID program; The FIDO Alliance announced that NTT DOCOMO, INC. has extended its deployment of FIDO Certified strong authentication to its customers with Apple iOS devices; Crossmatch announced the addition of contextual security features to its DigitalPersona Altus multi-factor authentication platform.

Over the course of 2015, re:ID looked at the state of national eID credentials, breaking down the global market into key regions. The final installment of the series focuses on the Middle East, a region that in 2016 expects to see a significant boom in the number of issued eIDs.

Gemalto has managed a modernization of Guinea’s voter register; IRIS Corporation has inked a $22 million contract to supply ePassports to the Government of Solomon Islands; prizeotel has selected ASSA ABLOY Hospitality to implementing Mobile Access at three locations.

The rise of eID credentials is a trend that’s made landfall with countries in virtually every corner of the planet – but not every corner. The Americas lie in direct opposition to one another in terms of their implementation of national eID credentials. South America has a stable of countries, eight as of 2015, with eIDs. North America, however, is yet to climb aboard while Central America and the Caribbean fall in the middle both geographically as well as in the adoption of eID.

Germans take their privacy seriously. So seriously that many are microwaving or boiling their national ID cards to disable the contactless smart card chip for fear that they’re being tracked.

The second installment of the re:ID eID series highlights Asia. The countries with the most significant influences in the region are those with the largest populations, China and India. The growth of eID issuance in Asia will greatly hinge upon how these countries have and will decide to implement and issue credentials to their citizens.