Major supermarket giant Woolworths has thrown its support behind legislation that would formalise a digital identity in Australia.
Woolworths said it is “supportive” of measures that promote “enhanced use of digital ID services.” The company said it is keen to offer digital ID for customers “as soon as we can safely and securely do so.”
“A Digital ID program could reduce our requirement to obtain and hold identity-verification documentation for 385,000 Woolworths Mobile customers, 90,000 new team members annually, and customers who lodge a claim against one of our 565,000 home, landlord, pet, or life insurance policies,” the company said in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry on Dec. 22.
“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.”
Australians can already use a “digital ID” to connect with MyGov, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) Centrelink, and Medicare.
Woolworths also said, “We are supportive of measures to promote enhanced use of Digital ID services.”
Supermarket Giant Keen to See Program Expanded
Further, Woolworths indicated it backs the government accelerating legislation to broaden the digital identity and is keen to offer the service to customers.“While we support the minister having rule-making power to include new services over time, we would encourage broad application from the outset, including for organisations in the private sector,” the company said.
“We would welcome the opportunity to work with the Commonwealth on testing safe and secure API integrations to ensure they are simple and intuitive for organisations to adopt.”
The company also said it would back moves to “increase trust in the Digital ID system. To underpin consumer and business trust in Digital ID, we support a robust accreditation process and the addition of clear and practical safeguards.
Westpac And NAB Also Back Digital ID
Australian major bank Westpac also provided support for the digital ID in a submission to the inquiry.“The parliament’s consideration of digital identity legislation comes at an important point. After a series of high profile cyber-related incidents, measures to further protect the identity credentials of Australian customers is rightfully of paramount importance.”
Westpac said the move to “some form of digital identity” verification is needed for economic growth, security, and productivity.
The bank said a robust digital identity framework would improve privacy protections for consumers and lower the amount of private information stored by companies.
The National Australia Bank also expressed support for a digital ID system and said private sector providers should have access “sooner” to the same opportunities as government-issued identity sources.
“NAB sees the development of a fit-for-purpose Digital ID ecosystem as a critical to progressing Australia’s digital economy,” the bank said.
“NAB strongly believes the best way for a functional and well-used Digital ID ecosystem to be developed is collaboratively between government and the private sector.”
However, the bank raised concerns about the “definition” of identity in the bill and said there are scenarios where only part of an identity may need to be verified, rather than all details.
The Senate Economic Legislation Committee is due to report by Feb. 28.
The committee received 97 submissions by the deadline of Jan. 19, after the bill was introduced to the Senate in late November.
Who Regulates the Digital ID?
The Digital ID Bill 2023 brings in an accreditation scheme to enable entities—including state governments and corporations—to provide digital ID with oversight from the digital ID regulator.The current regulator is set to be the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which would have the power to accredit entities to provide digital ID.
“The Digital ID Regulator (which is the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) may, on application, accredit certain kinds of entities as accredited attribute service providers, accredited identity exchange providers, accredited identity service providers or entities that provide, or propose to provide, services of a kind prescribed by the Accreditation Rules.”
Accredited services would need to comply with privacy safeguards, which build on the Privacy Act 1988. A civil penalty could apply if privacy safeguards are breached, the proposed law states.
The draft legislation says the Digital ID Regulator and the Information Commissioner could then take enforcement action against “accredited entities and other entities.”
