California plans to expand digital identity program with new use cases

California’s chief technology officer Jonathan Porat is looking to build on the success of the state’s existing digital identity use cases, such as mobile driver’s licenses (mDL).

According to a report from StateScoop, that means partnering with local agencies on pilot projects that go “beyond just age or identity verification.”

Porat points to a single-sign-on digital ID service pilot from 2023 for the state’s Cal-ITP benefits website, allowing residents to receive benefits by showing their transportation cards. That project began with public transit in Monterey County and Santa Barbara.

He says “what we’re doing now is trying to expand the breadth of those different benefits programs. So we started by looking at a couple of simple things, like age-related discounts, and now we’re going so far as to have agreements with the federal VA and CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), the group that manages Medicare and Medicaid, so that if you receive disability, if you are above a certain age, if you have certain status, you can get those discounts automatically, just by paying with your wireless payment.”

A pilot project with the California Public Utilities Commission is underway to build a portal where residents can use their IDs to check which benefits programs they qualify for.

The state IT department has partnered with the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) to “ensure any vendors used for the identity verification process are compliant with the Delete Act, a 2023 law intended to fill gaps in the landmark California Consumer Protection Act that allows residents to request their personal data be removed by data brokers based in the state with a single request.”

Porat says that a consistent environment that allows residents to share data directly from their device to trusted identity service providers means “the government doesn’t need to maintain like a giant list, or a giant list across all these different agencies of all of this different information about each Californian. You get to keep all of that data, and then you get to choose what data you would like to share so that you can be checked against different types of eligibility.”

CPPA signs declaration with UK ICO in move to strengthen global partnerships

The CPPA is expanding its network of global collaborators in the privacy and data protection space. It recently signed a declaration of cooperation with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (UK ICO), in a move to coordinate policy and best practice across jurisdictions. A release from the organization says the UK agreement allows the agencies to facilitate joint research and education, share investigative methods, convene meetings and “develop appropriate mechanisms for mutual collaboration.”

“Californians have the right to ensure that their personal information is being used only for the purposes they desire, and the CPPA is committed to protecting and promoting this and other privacy rights,” says CPPA Executive Director Tom Kemp. “By partnering with the UK ICO, we can deepen our knowledge base and leverage best practices from other regulators whose citizens face many of the same privacy harms that Californians have.”

The declaration marks the third collaboration between the CPPA and international data protection authorities, following agreements with South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) and with French data protection authority, the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL).

The CPPA is also a member of the Global Privacy Assembly, the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities, the Global Privacy Enforcement Network and the International Working Group on Data Protection in Technology.

Article Topics

California  |  data protection  |  digital government  |  digital identity  |  government services  |  Identity Service Providers (IDSP)  |  identity verification