ID checking business a possibility

5.00pm - by RICHARD WOOD

Government proposals that will centralise identity information in either one or a few databases may create a whole new industry of third party referee agencies.

A questionnaire being put out to the public today asks what types of referee organisations people would be comfortable with and whether the job could be done by non-government agencies such as banks, credit firms, community organisations, and iwi.

The role of these agencies would be to confirm a person is who they say they are when establishing their online identity with the government.

Another business opportunity likely to spin off the proposals will be the construction of a secure infrastructure for inter-department identity information flow.

State Services E-government head Brendan Boyle confirmed this would require the building and maintenance of networks, either physical or using the public internet through a secure virtual private network technology.

The Government is seeking feedback on a system for password access to government services online, but has not put forward the potential cost of the project nor what the particular technology choices might ultimately be.

Minister for State Services Trevor Mallard said the costs will depend on the direction taken and a tender process, but having an online authentication system is inevitable and the savings are quite clear.

"People are demanding online services from government. It just must be cheaper to get a central system going than have a 100 separate systems [from the various government agencies]. It's a no brainer."

Four models have been proposed and the likely outcome will be a mixture of the ingredients of each. The first two would involve an individual's basic name and address information being held by a single agency in a central database, that can then be used to validate a person's identity when they use a specific service. This is despite a statement from the e-government unit that none of the options includes an identity card.

The third models allows for a number of separate holders of such identities, and the forth retains the status quo in only holding that information within the government departments concerned, but subject to a new agreed standard of data format.

The background documents do not explore the technology options, only looking conceptually at how such a system might work The questionnaire asks the public to weigh up and rank the issues of convenience, security, privacy, ease of use, speed, cost, confirmation, and help desk support.

The public is also being asked about which bits of basic information it is comfortable for a central authorisation agency or agencies to hold and, in a separate question, which information people are happy to be passed on to government agencies.

Mallard said the government believes the individual will require control as to which agencies are allowed to see their centralised information, as a buy-in to the project.

The privacy commission was not available for comment. Mallard said privacy laws have proved to be quite strong and would only require change if the Privacy Commissioner saw a need.

Public consultation ends on April 7 and a decision on which approach will be used is expected to be made by mid-year.

The background information and questionnaire posted online and newspaper advertisements this weekend will point people online or to an 0800 number.

e-government