As more and more services move online - and fraud mounts - this is of growing importance not just to individuals but to the businesses and governments with which they interact. In many countries, the answer is an identity card, but that idea has met with lots of resistance in the UK.
Now the team which overhauled the government's many websites, bringing them all under the gov.uk address, thinks it has the answer. The Government Digital Service, fresh from winning all sorts of awards for gov.uk, is confident that an identity assurance system called Verify will be even more transformative.
Last week in a conference room inside the Treasury, I got a first glimpse of the new service from a group of people who couldn't be less like your average civil servants. Casually dressed, toting fold-up bicycles and laptops covered in stickers, they come across like programmers from an edgy start-up. Which is what GDS aspires to be..
They explained with some excitement that I was the first outsider to get a glimpse of Verify. The elevator pitch is that this is a one-stop shop for proving your identity for a range of government services, from renewing your passport or driving licence to paying tax.
The whole process has been designed so that the first registration should be complete in 10 minutes. The promise is that once this is complete, you as the citizen will find access to public services more speedy while the government will have far more certainty that you are who you say you are.
The process of verifying your identity is not done by the government itself but is handed over to a range of outside companies. Right now, at the beta testing stage, this is limited to the credit rating agency Experian and the American company Verizon, which has an identity assurance business as well as a mobile phone network. Further on, the Post Office, banks and UK mobile phone operators will also be suppliers.
BBC News - Cracking the problem of online identification
So the government will know you are who you say you are because commercial credit checking companies will have all your data "promise not to sell it guv'" and it will be safe. Not to mention if the data is checked by Verizon, out of this country, then GCHQ and the NSA will help themselves as it crosses the border. Safe and trustworthy, pull the other one
oh and how long before you *must* register and give your personal details to commercial companies, GCHQ, NSA etc to enable you to tax your car, or buy a TV licence etc... or put it another if you don't give them your details you will be unable to tax your car etc and so be one of the criminal class?
Now the team which overhauled the government's many websites, bringing them all under the gov.uk address, thinks it has the answer. The Government Digital Service, fresh from winning all sorts of awards for gov.uk, is confident that an identity assurance system called Verify will be even more transformative.
Last week in a conference room inside the Treasury, I got a first glimpse of the new service from a group of people who couldn't be less like your average civil servants. Casually dressed, toting fold-up bicycles and laptops covered in stickers, they come across like programmers from an edgy start-up. Which is what GDS aspires to be..
They explained with some excitement that I was the first outsider to get a glimpse of Verify. The elevator pitch is that this is a one-stop shop for proving your identity for a range of government services, from renewing your passport or driving licence to paying tax.
The whole process has been designed so that the first registration should be complete in 10 minutes. The promise is that once this is complete, you as the citizen will find access to public services more speedy while the government will have far more certainty that you are who you say you are.
The process of verifying your identity is not done by the government itself but is handed over to a range of outside companies. Right now, at the beta testing stage, this is limited to the credit rating agency Experian and the American company Verizon, which has an identity assurance business as well as a mobile phone network. Further on, the Post Office, banks and UK mobile phone operators will also be suppliers.
BBC News - Cracking the problem of online identification
So the government will know you are who you say you are because commercial credit checking companies will have all your data "promise not to sell it guv'" and it will be safe. Not to mention if the data is checked by Verizon, out of this country, then GCHQ and the NSA will help themselves as it crosses the border. Safe and trustworthy, pull the other one
oh and how long before you *must* register and give your personal details to commercial companies, GCHQ, NSA etc to enable you to tax your car, or buy a TV licence etc... or put it another if you don't give them your details you will be unable to tax your car etc and so be one of the criminal class?
) 
Comment