A widespread rollout of the national digital ID will result in a drop in cyber attacks and scams, according to Christopher Taylor, chief of policy at the Australian Banking Association.
The government is examining the implementation of a national digital ID that will be a one-stop-shop for accessing government health, welfare, and tax services—with potential expansion into banking and supermarket services in the future.
During a Senate Committee hearing on Feb. 9, Mr. Taylor said that most cyber attacks, scams, and fraud activity were occurring because of the reliance on physical documentation.
“And what that creates is an opportunity for people to steal someone’s information—and recent high-profile data breaches have very much brought that to the front of mind for Australians—and then use someone’s identity documents either to take their money or to commit financial fraud in their name,” he told the Senate Economics Legislation Committee investigating the Digital ID (Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Bill 2023.
“The adoption of a digital identity will mean two things. One, Australians will have much greater control and choice over their own digital identity, where it’s used, and how it’s used.
“And secondly, they can have much more confidence that their identity is better protected than it is using current physical documents whereas ... mentioned earlier, you are scanning and effectively taking photographs of your identity documents, but they have no control over how they’re ultimately used.
Digital ID To Usurp Reliance on Points of ID System
The $145 million shift towards a digital ID is meant to supplant the reliance on the points system of ID, as well as the need to display identification documents every time individuals engage with government services.Instead, going forward, Australians will receive a one-time PIN linked to an app. The ID system would then grant access to services like the Australian Tax Office, Centrelink, and Medicare.
“The government sees digital ID as an important economic, productivity, and security reform,” said current Finance Minister Katy Gallagher.
The government has also sought to assuage concerns around privacy, saying data will be encrypted and that third parties cannot access it.
Meanwhile, major organisations like Westpac, National Australia Bank, and supermarket giant Woolworths have all backed its implementation.
“A digital ID could speed this process and improve the customer and team member experience. It would also reduce the risk to individuals of hundreds of thousands of documents being held on file.”
In contrast, Digital Rights Watch has warned against personal data being repurposed for surveillance, and UNSW’s Allens Hub expressed concern about “mission creep,” pointing to an example in India, where a similar voluntary system was introduced.
“Soon [it] witnessed public-sector oil marketing companies and financial institutions including banks and fintech providers beginning to heavily rely on it for [electronic Know-Your-Customer] authentication, expanding eventually to income tax filing, transfer of government subsidies, mobile phone connections, and government scholarships and welfare programs,” their submission said.
They said the murky nature of the system has raised “serious questions about civil liberties and democratic practices, mirrored in other countries like China, Kenya, and Jamaica.”
