Earlier this week at the annual Mobile World Congress on Feb 26, Turkey’s telecom giant Turkcell announced its new blockchain-based ID management tool for customers.

With it, customers get to have control over their personal data in a way that remains compliant with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), reported Turkish media (Feb 27).

Existing ID management methods usually require users to create multiple accounts for multiple platforms, or use personal data shared with third parties. Turkcell’s ID Management solution, on the other hand, stores required for user verification data on the blockchain, and removes the need for additional identity verifications.

This also enables Turkcell to offer other use-cases to enterprises. It has a use-case for a blockchain-based donation solution, where its ID Management is used to verify the donation eligibility of those in need, and people can use it directly to make donations. This also helps to foster public trust in donating.

“Our customers demand transparency and trust in every step of our processes. In this sense, using blockchain technology is essential to improve the customer experience of our digital services and solutions, which remains a top priority in the design of our service”, said Serkan Öztürk, Turkcell Customer Experience and Information Technologies Executive Vice President.

“This is why we joined the global blockchain consortium of telecom carriers, the Carrier Blockchain Study Group (CBSG). Our blockchain solutions provide secure digital payments, barter systems, identity verification, and internet of things (IoT) applications. These efforts will help Turkcell improve our digital services and raise the bar in customer experience”, he added.

Founded in 1994, Turkey-based digital firm Turkcell now has branches in nine countries. In 2018, the group’s net income reportedly came to 2 billion lira ($377 million), with revenue up 21% year-on-year.

On the same day of Turkcell’s ID Management announcement, two CBSG founding members also announced a similar project, reported TheCryptoSight. Japanese telco heavyweight SoftBank Corp and TBCASoft from the US are leading a new CBSG working group focused on blockchain-powered digital identification authentication, similar to Turkcell’s offering.