“All we are is who we are,” says John O’Hurley, “and unfortunately we have to give that away ten, fifteen times a day.” This makes us more vulnerable than ever to identity theft, which, according to O’Hurley, “is a culture-changing thing. We’re inundated with it. Companies can’t trust who’s on the other end of the line, and we have the same problem on social media. It’s a large issue for our society.”
If you want to know how big the problem is, says O’Hurley, look no further than the recent Twitter spat in which prospective buyer Elon Musk claimed that “90 per cent of my comments are bots”. Following Musk’s widely circulated tweet that he aims to “authenticate all real humans”, O’Hurley joined forces with technology veteran Becky Wanta to launch US-based biometric authentication company Q5id.
O’Hurley is best remembered as one of the breakout stars on the US television sitcom ‘Seinfeld’ for his portrayal of the pompous but irresistibly funny J Peterman...