DIACC releases recommendations on prioritizing verification and authentication

The Digital Identification and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC) has published its written submission for the 2025 pre-budget consultations, outlining three key recommendations on digital identity verification and authentication.

The recommendations are as follows. The government should recognize “the necessity of embracing and prioritizing privacy-protecting verification and authentication tools as part of its AI strategy.” It should allocate necessary funds to support the “adoption of digital trust tools to the benefit of government, businesses and citizens alike.”

The most extensive recommendation has four subsections. The government must “prioritize digital trust in four areas critical to Canada’s leadership and the privacy, security and protection of our people and industries.” These areas concern digital trust in citizen services, digital trust in finance and regulatory, digital trust in public safety and digital trust in business and industry.

For the first, the DIACC advocates for collaborative public-private partnerships and innovation via research and development to build digital trust in citizen services such as healthcare, banking, and government services. It notes its work on the Pan-Canadian Trust Framework (PCTF), “a risk mitigation and assurance framework that extends standards and open source code to help service providers ensure risk mitigation and user care.”

For the second, regarding finance and regulations, “the government is encouraged to build on the existing regulatory framework and develop new regulations to facilitate secure digital transactions, including compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations.”

For the third, on public safety, advanced authentication methods can “ensure individuals and organizations are who they claim to be,” in order to “prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information and critical infrastructure, minimize financial scams and misuse of personal data.”

On business and industry, the DIACC says prioritizing digital trust and implementing authentication and verification tools will help streamline processes, create efficiencies, minimize data vulnerability, and protect against fraud.

“The spread of misinformation is evolving around the world at a concerning pace,” says the DIACC. “Bad actors are finding new battlegrounds and frontiers every day, and information and images generated by AI are being used to push political agendas and false narratives, scam and steal money and identities, and, even worse, lure online.”

“In today’s era of information warfare, authenticity and verification must be prioritized – particularly given the role of digital trust and identity verification in the delivery of government and business services.”

The recommendation on the necessity of verification and authentication tools in light of the emergence of AI says priority must go to “funding, collaboration and urgent action to support the development, adoption and certification of tools that verify information authenticity while protecting privacy and empowering Canadians.”

“The economic imperative of investing in these capabilities is clear,” says the DIACC, noting a study by Deloitte showing that the Canadian economy could add an additional CAD $7 trillion in economic value through AI technologies.

DIACC board of directors gets bigger

The organization has added five new members to its extensive board of directors. Song new appointees announced in a release are the Chief Information Officer of Ontario, Manish Agarwal; General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer for the Service New Brunswick Erin Hardy; Neil Butters, VP and head of product architecture for Interac Corp; and Karan Puri, Associate VP of, TD Bank. Jonathan Cipryk, VP and head of technology functions for Manulife, has been re-elected and named vice chair.

Dave Nikolejsin, Chair of the DIACC board, says the new appointees’ “expertise and dedication are invaluable as we advance digital trust in the global digital economy.”

Article Topics

Board of Directors  |  Canada  |  DIACC  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  digital trust  |  Pan-Canadian Trust Framework (PCTF)