Digital Identity: Global Roundup

Australia

FrankieOne is partnering with Daon on a new identity orchestration platform to combat the growing threat of AI-driven fraud.

By integrating Daon’s AI-driven biometric and document verification capabilities into FrankieOne’s single API and orchestration layer, customers get identity verification, multi-modal liveness detection, and anti-spoofing measures. The partnership enables businesses to fight evolving fraud threats while maintaining compliance with complex regulatory requirements such as APRA and AUSTRAC in Australia, and their equivalents worldwide.

Global

SailPoint has announced a series of updates for SailPoint Identity Security Cloud. These include new capabilities for SailPoint Non-Employee Risk Management and Machine Identity Security, along with a series of Deep Connectivity updates.  

SailPoint Non-Employee Risk Management can now be integrated with Microsoft Entra Verified ID. This adds the ability to leverage third-party verifiable credentials and biometric verification, enabling faster, high-assurance onboarding of non-employees.

There is new multi-host classification for SailPoint Machine Identity Security to let customers define machine account rules once and apply them across hundreds of sources. It is combined with the introduction of machine account sub-types which provide distinctions between service accounts, bots, and shared accounts. 

Connectivity enhancements include expanded SAP GRC Firefighter access, enhanced Virtual Appliance (VA) capabilities that enable multiple products such as Data Access Security and Privilege Task Automation to run on a single cluster, and broader integrations with tools like BeyondTrust, MacOS password reset, and JDBC for low-code provisioning.

United Kingdom

The UK Government’s plans to introduce a mandatory Digital ID system highlight the urgency of preparing for corporate digital identity, according to Cindy van Niekerk, CEO of digital identification platform Umazi.

While much of the debate focuses on individual identities, Umazi stresses the need to extend this thinking to organisations.

“The UK government must also shift its focus to corporate digital identities, arming organisations with legal identifiers. Financial institutions, fintechs and regulators need to come together and collaborate on a more robust compliance process to prevent financial crime.”

According to Umazi, reusable corporate data is central to this future. If organisations can use verified data from Companies House to onboard with a bank, reuse that same data with a law firm, and apply it again for supply chain due diligence, risk flags can be raised automatically in real time.

United Kingdom

However, public support for digital IDs has reportedly collapsed after Keir Starmer announced plans for their introduction, in what has been described as a symptom of the prime minister’s “reverse Midas touch”.

Net support for digital ID cards fell from 35 percent in the early summer to -14 percent at the weekend after Starmer’s announcement, according to polling by More in Common.

The findings suggest that the proposal has suffered considerably from its association with an unpopular government. In June, 53 percent of voters surveyed said they were in favour of digital ID cards for all Britons, while 19 percent were opposed.

Just 31 percent of people surveyed after Starmer’s announcement said they were supportive of the scheme, with 45 percent saying they were opposed. Of those, 32 percent said they were strongly opposed. More than 2.6 million people have signed a petition against introduction of the IDs.

The Guardian reports that advocates of a national digital ID scheme are frustrated at the way the policy has been presented and believe that now it may never be implemented.

Ireland

The Irish government is being consulted about how the new UK digital ID scheme will impact cross-border workers, Northern Ireland Secretary of State Hilary Benn has confirmed.

Under the scheme, the IDs will be compulsory for all those working in the UK. But the move has been criticised by all the Stormont parties, with Sinn Féin claiming it to be an attack on the Good Friday Agreement which protects those wishing to identify as Irish or British, or both, reports the BBC.

The party said it will resist any move to force the digital IDs, labelled Brit cards, on Irish citizens in Northern Ireland.

South Africa

The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) has implemented a new biometric system for social grant recipients, with mandatory biometric enrollment beginning September 1, 2025. The system requires both digital facial-recognition photos and fingerprints from new applicants and individuals updating their payment details, building upon SASSA’s earlier biometric verification initiatives for Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grants.

New Zealand

New Zealand is developing a digital driver’s licence as part of its broader government digital transformation initiative. The first version of the digital driver’s licence app is expected to launch by late 2025. The system will allow citizens to store an encrypted version of their driver’s licence on smartphones within a government app for verification by authorities. The initiative follows successful implementations in Australian states including New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria since 2019, where digital licenses have already shown improved security features and user convenience.

Switzerland

Swiss citizens have voted in favour of a government move to introduce a digital ID in a referendum that had just 50.39 percent of voters saying yes.

Less than eight of the country’s 26 cantons fully supported the idea with the results showing a very wide urban-rural divide over the digital ID plan, and with conservative voters largely against it. In all, 49.61 percent said no.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is looking for IT Managed Service Provider (MSPs) for the ongoing  operation, maintenance and enhancement of the Sri Lanka Unique Digital Identity (SL-UDI) platform.

As the project is being funded through a grant from India, Indian companies are being considered for the role of Master Systems Integrator (MSI). To ensure local expertise and control over the digital ID system, however, a separate tender has been issued to procure a domestic MSP to take over after the MSI’s initial contract is completed.

The selected MSP will adopt control of the SL-UDI system following the completion of acceptance and security testing.

Tonga

Tonga is getting grant assistance of about 882 million yen (about US$6 million) from the Japanese government for the putting in place of a biometric passport system.

The initiative is dubbed the Project for Enhancing Border Management Capacity through the Introduction of the eMRP (Electronic Machine-Readable Passport).