Australian gov’t points to what could be with myGov. Not everyone sees it

Australia’s myGov digital ID efforts continue to suffer the slings and arrows of skeptics while the government works on new features for the public service-access app.

The myGov app already is used by 1.4 million Australians daily to access Medicare and that nation’s tax department, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. The government is looking at adding driver’s licenses, passport services and voter registration.

The program is in danger of losing annual funding of $138 million that had been allocated by a previous government over each of the previous two years.

Depending on the funding, the federal government would prefer to begin negotiations with states to integrate driver’s licenses into myGov and, from there, passport renewals, voter registration and census responses.

Leaders of Digital Rights Watch Australia were unimpressed the idea, saying the statement by the government lacked sufficient detail. They want to hear more about reining in mass surveillance when the government has so much access to biometric data in myGov.

Others are worried that the slow pace of myGov’s growth is leading to competing programs and apps among Australian states. According to Australian technology publication iTnews, there is concern that the nation could end up with multiple standards and otherwise incompatible functions.

Article Topics

Australia  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  digital wallet  |  government services  |  identity management