United Kingdom
The Government Digital Service (GDS) has signed two new contracts with a total value of £38 million for the further development of the One Login service.
It has agreed the deals, both running for two years from April and valued at £19 million each, with PA Consulting Services as a capability delivery partner for user centred design and BAE Systems Digital Intelligence for fraud risk management, reports UK Authority.
Australia
Australia’s long-awaited digital ID laws have passed Parliament, waiting now only on royal assent before coming into effect in November 2024.
The Digital ID Bill 2024 and Digital ID (Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Bill 2024 passed through the House of Representatives on the evening of 16 May in what the Department of Finance is calling a “milestone for the program”.
Once the act comes into effect, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will be the digital ID regulator, with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner regulating the privacy aspects of the new system.
Australia
Additionally, the federal government is to include AU$288.1 million in funding in the federal budget to boost the adoption of its Digital ID system over the next four years.
The funding will be spread across a range of agencies and departments involved with the scheme and is a significant boost up from the $24.7 million that was provided in last year’s budget.
The bulk of the cash will go to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), which will be receiving $155.6 million over two years for its work on myGovID and the relationship authorisation management service.
The ATO will also be sharing $23.4 million over two years with the Department of Finance and Services Australia to pilot the use of government digital wallets and verifiable credentials.
Services Australia will receive $46 million over two years to operate and improve the identity exchange, while Finance will get $35.2 million over two years to help run the program.
The Attorney-General’s department will receive $11 million over four years to work on the credential protection register, Treasury will get $7.8 million over two years to support data standards, and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has landed $5.6 million for its privacy oversight role.
Belgium
Belgium has become one of the first countries to launch a digital identity wallet after the publication of the European Union’s eIDAS 2.0, the regulation setting standards for national electronic identification systems.
The digital identity, named MyGov.be, went live last Tuesday with the Belgium Federal Government promising that the digital identity will provide a smoother experience with administrative work.
According to a 2023 survey by Deloitte, 71 percent of Belgians do not want a digital ID on their phone. Another 79 percent say do not want a mobile driver’s license (mDL) while half refuse to fully digitise their IDs.
The national digital wallet was envisioned as an alternative to the popular itsme app, a digital identity app owned by a consortium of local telecom companies and banks that has 3.5 million registered users in Belgium. Residents can register for MyGov.be using an identity card, the eID system, or itsme.
MyGov.be will include an electronic mailbox for government documents and 683 services. The electronic wallet will also hold identity data, COVID-19 vaccination records, birth and marriage certificates and ISI+, a healthcare card for children below the age 12 and for adults who do not own an electronic card.
By 2025, the app will incorporate eIDs and mobile driving licenses and by 2026, the European Health Insurance Card should also be added. Another planned addition is the My Benefits platform which helps prove the right to benefits.
Meanwhile, Itsme has been accredited by the country’s federal government for another three years, allowing it to be used for login into Belgum’s public services platform, the Federal Authentication Service (FAS).
Albania
A law on electronic identity cards has been submitted for public consultation in Albania.
“The notification can be in electronic or digital form. In any case, citizens can choose to be provided with one of the forms of ID, or they can be provided simultaneously with ID in both forms, electronic and digital,” according to the Ministry of the Interior.
Malawi
The government of Malawi, with technical and financial support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the European Union (EU) and Irish Aid, has launched a project to ramp up digital inclusion efforts in the country and make access to essential public services easier.
According to a UNDP news release, the initiative dubbed Inclusive Digital Transformation for Malawi (IDT4M) involves introducing a digital ID system and closing up the digital divide in the Southern African country, where just about 20 percent of citizens are said to have access to the internet.
United States
A new report by Socure and The Center for Digital Government, The State of Digital Identity in 2024, says state technology leaders need to modernise digital identity verification systems to fight fraud and improve the constituent experience.
According to the Government Accountability Office, the federal government loses an estimated $233 billion to $521 billion to fraud annually. State agencies, tasked with distributing federal funds, face challenges when providing seamless digital identity verification for constituents while defending against sophisticated bad actors, including fraudsters, crime rings, and nation-state attacks.
State agency leaders surveyed cited regulatory and policy challenges, privacy concerns, and the complexity of integrating digital identity verification solutions with legacy systems among the top identity-related pain points.
According to the report, 63 percent of constituents surveyed want to conduct all or most transactions with state agencies online, yet only 13 percent felt very confident state agencies can detect and prevent identity fraud. And more than half of the state leaders surveyed said they rely on knowledge-based authentication as a method of verification, despite the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) no longer recognising it as a valid method of verifying identities.
Nordics / Baltics
A new report from the Nordic-Baltic eID collaboration (NOBID) describes how collaboration on digital identity can revolutionise access to public and private services across borders in Europe.
The report, the result of analysis and collaboration between experts from the Nordic and Baltic countries, sheds light on the status of digital identity and identity matching across borders. Through close collaboration, common challenges and solutions have been identified that can strengthen the region’s position as a digital front runner.
One of the main conclusions in the report is the need for better identity matching to handle challenges with cross-border digital identity. This includes, among other things, the exchange of e-prescriptions and the recognition of professional qualifications, both of which are essential for mobility in the labour market and public services.
It said identity matching is crucial to achieve meaningful cross-border use of electronic IDs, and to enable smooth mobility across borders in the Nordic-Baltic region.
Global
Decentralised identity startup Humanity Protocol has been valued at $1 billion.
The firm announced the private valuation in a blog post as it revealed the completion of a $30 million seed round. The company said the funding will help it challenge Sam Altman’s Worldcoin and accelerate hiring and product development ahead of a “public testnet launch” in the second half of the year.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior has launched a digital identity service for pilgrims arriving from outside the Kingdom on Hajj visas for this season.
The ministry also launched a special passport stamp for pilgrims benefiting from the Mecca Route Initiative.
Developed in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, and the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority, the digital identity service enables pilgrims to prove their identity electronically through the Absher and Tawakkalna platforms.
The passport stamp, launched by the Ministry of Interior’s General Directorate of Passports, will be made available through designated lounges at 11 airports around the seven countries benefiting from it – Morocco, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkiye and Cote d’Ivoire.
