Online identity plan carries high cost, little gain: expert

By RICHARD WOOD

An electronic-identity expert has panned a Government plan to create a single identity database for access to Government services online.

Daryl Webb, director of specialist online authentication firm Digital Identity, said the technology was available but would mean privacy trade-offs and an enormous logistical cost in ensuring the accuracy of the data initially and over time.

He said at the outset people would need their identity confirmed in person, similar to the way passports and driver's licences are issued, and for the new driver's licences that process took 12 months.

"How is the Government going to do this without it costing a ridiculous amount of money?"

Outgoing E-government Unit head Brendon Boyle said there would need to be some sort of enrolment process, but that depended on the design work due for completion early next year, and the number of potential users was not known.

Webb said a major issue was that people had a tendency to create false identities.

"I may be happy to tell the electoral commission where I live, but I may not have wanted other Government departments to know."

Webb said those who used the system would have to remember passwords, so a call centre would be needed to help people get and change passwords.

Boyle said there would obviously have to be a process to manage and update passwords, but that had yet to be determined.

The authentication system is part of providing Government services online and ultimately "transforming" Government by being able to draw services more easily from each department to meet the needs of an individual.

But Webb said Government staff would end up needing to be more relationship than transaction focused, and therefore more expensive to hire.

"The money saved by being electronic will be eaten up in part, or in whole, or even more, because of the increase in servicing on a relationship basis."

Boyle said each department would have to weigh such considerations as part of their particular business case for electronic services.

Webb said the real gain to be made came from the re-engineering of social services, and departments needed to be careful about getting carried away with technology.

"I would say it is the revisiting of how things are done that is the true enabler."

But despite the risk, society would end up taking a Government-led "suck it and see" approach, he said.

"With a system like this there will be some early adopters who see some real benefits.

"We'll see a chunk of people who are laggards because of significant privacy concerns and will hang out a lot longer, but [they] will join eventually as long as this is reasonably effectively implemented."