Lockstep Technologies’ Stepwise radically enhances privacy, security and safety for consumers transacting on the Internet. Stepwise uses smartcards and similar intelligent personal security devices to de-identify highly sensitive transactions, such as e-health record entries, payment instructions, e-voting ballots and so on.

Stepwise encapsulates digital identities -- customer reference numbers, identifiers, biometric templates or any other personal ID  -- and seals them cryptographically into a smartcard or similar PKI-capable device. It isolates each identity, strips away all extraneous personal detail and linkages, and puts all identities under the sole control of the device holder. Stepwise ensures that when any digital identity is presented online, we know that it’s legitimate, it comes from a genuine smart device, and that it’s been presented with consent. Stepwise makes customer numbers trustworthy again and thereby stems the leakage of personal information.

Stepwise benefits include:

• digital identities cannot be cloned, counterfeited, or illicitly copied from one smartcard to another
• transactions originating from a Stepwise device are sealed with their respective identifiers, contain the bare minimum personal information, and cannot be cross-linked with each other
• every transaction bears a tamper-proof pedigree, proving it originated from an authentic smartcard carrying a bona fide identifier, used with the consent of the cardholder.