California sees expansion of digital ID framework

California’s Digital Identity Initiative, a program that enables residents to verify eligibility for state services, has had a good 2024: The platform scaled to support over 4,000 verification queries per second last year.

The state platform was also integrated with systems such as federal health insurance program Medicare, California’s Department of Social Services CalFresh and public transportation agency Sacramento Regional Transit, according to Anirban Sen, senior product manager at the California Department of Technology (CDT).

“A lot of times, state departments don’t share data with each other, and this is where the California digital ID program comes into play,” says Sen.

The platform uses identity providers and the U.S. government’s single-sign-on service Login.gov. However, thanks to the use of open standards and open-source code, it is flexible enough to use a number of identity providers such as ID.me. It is also built on privacy by design principles, ensuring that the state can deliver services to Californians with a minimal amount of information required, Sen explained at the Forum on Emerging Technologies in December.

“We built the CMS integration from inception to full production deployment in four months,” he adds.

The California Department of Technology has also written guidelines on mobile credentials, including mobile driver’s licenses (mDLs), business licenses, park passes and more.

California has become a leader in mDLs with more organizations accepting the digital credential. The mDL is part of the Californian Digital ID Framework managed by CDT.

Article Topics

California  |  digital government  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  government services  |  privacy by design