Australia sets out three-year strategy to boost ID verification privacy

The Australian Government’s Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) is adopting a “whole-of-system” approach to regulation as it seeks to make ID verification more secure and privacy protective.

Currently, Australia’s digital ID system is mainly used to help its citizens to access government services but it is being steadily expanded to support identity verification by organizations in the public and private sectors. The OAIC has responsibility as the privacy regulator of the system, using its regulatory powers to enforce privacy protections.

Its regulation approach will focus on “education, collaboration and deterrence” underscored by compliance monitoring and enforcement. It warned that organizations that collect, handle and manage people’s identity information “should be aware” that this will be an area the OAIC will focus on, as it considers not only the privacy and security settings of accredited digital ID services, but also “less favorable” identity verification practices across the country’s economy.

The commissioner will prioritize complaints regarding biometric information, while analyzing systemic trends to inform its compliance and enforcement options. Shorter-term outcomes include “rigorously” enforcing and addressing harms that result from the mishandling of identity information, while educating the public on privacy issues. This feeds into the organization’s longer-term outcomes, with the goal of having people “demanding” and “expecting” digital services to adhere to a high level of cyber security and practice.

The OAIC has set out its activities and goals over an initial three-year roadmap for the Digital ID program, although it says the activities is “dependent on the scope of the OAIC’s continuing role as privacy regulator” of the system.

In the Australian state of Queensland residents are being urged to make any changes to their QGov account before Friday. The migration of QGov accounts to become Queensland Digital Identities (QDI) begins from February 28. After this date, any changes individuals make to their QGov account will not move over to QDI.

On March 16 the Queensland Government is scheduled to shut down the QGove digital identity system, and will commence using the Queensland Digital Identity system in its place. There is a helpful checklist to ensure smooth transition to QDI on the Queensland Government website here. According to the Queensland Government, the QDI is a “modern, robust and innovative” system that meets the “highest national standards” and security protocols for digital identities.

Article Topics

Australia  |  data privacy  |  data protection  |  digital government  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  identity verification  |  Office of the Information Commissioner (OAIC)