Why AuthQ? More than 85% of visitors on the Internet are already looking for identity information when they decide to interact with the website; leave some personal data, send an inquiry or buy something. Because more than 97% of sites are currently violating EU consumer protection directive and local consumer protection laws, the identity of the website owner is rarely provided in an undoubtful way as EU consumer law requires. Some pages are using SSL certificates, well a majority of them are using low-cost SSL certificates which do not provide identity information. Less than 5% of visitors know how to check SSL certificates, validity, issuers and the promises given by the SSL. That’s the main reason why trust in the world wide web is permanently decreasing since 2001.
Since 1.July 2016, eIDAS Regulation has raised the standards for EU trust service providers. The trust service providers are now exposed to much higher risks. By the new eIDAS Regulation, they are liable for damages done to the visitor of the particular website. A visitor could make a wrong conclusion based on false identity information provided by tech unprotected or under-protected certificates or trustmarks. 99% of trustmark issuers who were distributing pictures (.jpg) have a severe problem.
The Internet is more and more dangerous; trust is decreasing; the market of SSL certificates is untransparent. We need much more simple mechanisms to provide identity and quality information than those offered by SSL certificates. And we need a lot of other reliable and transparent data as well. AuthQ is here because we badly needed new technology to solve those problems.