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Recently I spoke with Larry Cynkin, CTO of Honesty Online, as part of the Online Dating Insider sponsor series. Honesty Online provides a verified identity credential that you can use and re-use wherever you interact or transact online. Your credential is your virtual calling card, letting others know who you are and letting them know they can trust you.

Note: people tend to mix up background checks and identity verification. There is a difference. An identity check verifies you are who you say you are, nothing more. A background check looks into criminal, education or other statistics for a person, but does not confirm you are this person. Honesty Online offers a both an identity and background check.

During our conversation, Larry shared recent happenings at Honesty Online.

Honesty Online has a new credential widget which makes it easier to quickly embed credentials on partner sites. Gone is the need for partners to add database fields, as is the case with the original method; the credential widget is added to a website through a simple HTML script, yet like the existing credential, it is secure.

The original integration method, while a step up in complexity, offers parter sites additional functionality such as filtering on credentialed users in search.

The credential is what Larry calls a “first pass filter” that speaks to the legitimacy of a user. It gives a user a way to stand out in a crowd.

A new Facebook application will display a verification credential on Facebook profiles.

Adding employment verification. Roll out feature to move and add details to your credential.

Attended the Identity WorkShop recently.

Two patents applied for. One is for how they pass secure information back and forth between Honesty Online and partner to know if credential is genuine. The second is for the client widget.

Coming soon: Adding ability for users to manage their own accounts: 1) Ability to register your blog or website or web page and 2) control visibility of items in your credential.

There are many other potential uses for identity verification, including using Honesty Online to verify people, companies and brands on services such as Twitter as well as being built into OpenID.