It is coming, it is Big Brother, and it is un-necessary.
https://www.dta.gov.au/our-projects/digital-identity/digital-identity-ecosystem
This is terrible news, and hopefully will cause Australians to draw a line in the sand.
As has long been the case, when you wish to access government services or receive payments from the state, you need to identify yourself.
These days they are using 2FA, and that works fine. Log in to your MyGov account, get a text message, enter the code. A recent update for the business tax portal lets me use Touch ID on my phone – not a problem, the government doesn’t get my fingerprint.
But for citizens to access more confidential services – under what the DTA calls identity proofing level three (IP3) – requires that facial verification and liveness detection – or a proof-of-life test – be embedded in the app.
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/mygovid-facial-recognition-trials-slated-for-mid-2020-539020
This can only work if the government stores your likeness in their servers.
The government says it will be optional, but that being realistic depends on how hard achieving the same result would be using other methods. For example, real world appointments with a many-week queue, or phone lines that are always busy.
The other concern is it “represents a whole-of-economy solution” – the same system used to verify your ID to banking and utilities, with those businesses never seeing your biometrics.
The concern: once we are used to using our face for these things, the government will expand the usage. For example, scan your face to take out a library book. Scan your face to enter a sports stadium. Scan your face to clock on and off at work.
The existing systems work fine. We don’t need any extra efficiency if the trade off is privacy.
Note: all Australian government agencies can access each other’s data if they have a genuine need to. They can already access your image via your driver’s license photo or passport photo on file, which is a major issue, but hasn’t been highlighted to the general public.
