Australia Post partners with DTA on identity

Image credit: Australia Post.

Australia Post will work with the Digital Transformation Agency to integrate its Digital iD platform into the government’s Digital Identity Framework.

This year’s federal budget included $22.7 million in 2017-18 for ongoing work on the DTA’s GovPass project, on top of $16.8 million coughed up in 2016-17 for work on early trials and business case development.

GovPass is intended to make it easier to prove identity when using government services. The idea is to bring together a network of organisations able to verify the identity of an individual when accessing online services.

Initially only federal government organisations will be GovPass identify verifiers, but the scheme may be expanded to state government agencies and private sector organisations.

Australia Post today said it was partnering with the DTA to work on a proof of concept integration of Digital iD into the new framework.

“Our new Digital iD platform provides Australians with greater choice and control in how they prove their identity online,” Australia Post managing director and group CEO Ahmed Fahour said in a statement.

The organisation is yet to publicly launch Digital iD but the CEO said last year that the mobile application would employ biometric authentication to confirm identity.

The government last year launched its national Face Verification Service and is looking at expanding both its capabilities and the organisations that have access to it.