Australia Post accredited as trusted provider for government digital identity service

Australia’s federal government has approved the digital identification service provided by Australia Post, which includes facial biometrics as a “trusted identity service provider” under the Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF), ZDNet reports.

The Australia Post Digital ID solution offers identity verification with biometric facial recognition, among other methods, and is the second identity service to be accredited, after the federal government’s myGovID.

The Trusted Digital Identity Framework initiative was launched in 2017 by the government’s Digital Transformation Agency (DTA), in collaboration with the postal service, which said at the time it would create a proof of concept to integrate its Digital ID with the Commonwealth Digital Identity Framework, according to ZDNet. The system, which is intended to complement the GovPass platform, reached public beta testing in February, 2018. GovPass received a boost of more than AU$67 million (US$46.6 million) in the 2019-2020 budget to continue its advance towards a full roll-out.

Minister for Government Services Stuart Robert says version four of the TDIF will be released at the end of this year, focussing on increasing the opportunity for interoperability across the broader economy.

“The introduction of Australia Post as a second identity provider into the digital identity system is one of the foundational steps needed for the system to develop into a true whole of economy solution,” states Robert.

At hearings in November, DTA CDO Peter Alexander said that the Department of Human Services (now known as Services Australia), Australia Post, and the Australian Taxation Office will initially be responsible for GovPass.

“They hold a lot of identity data already,” Alexander said at the time. “It could easily be extended to jurisdictional providers and commercial providers, who are talking to banks, the Australian payment network, and others who can provide identity.”

Both GovPass and myGovID pilots began in late-2018.

The new Biometrics Institute Industry Survey shows concern that biometrics use is growing too rapidly for existing controls to be effective is particularly high in Australia and New Zealand.

Article Topics

Australia  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  identity verification  |  online authentication  |  secure transactions  |  Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF)