Digital Identity for all

The New Consortium for Digital Identity is gaining support but needs to go much further, argues Frank Joshi

If equality and inclusion are two fundamental and non-negotiable principles of our society, then we need to make sure that is also the case when an increasing amount of our society’s interaction is conducted using digital technologies.

Equality and inclusion must go hand-in-hand in both the physical and digital realm.

There are a number of examples where this is presently not the case and none more so than for people being able to prove their identity and their eligibility to services provided by central and local government.

I am not alone in becoming concerned about the emergence of digital technologies which apply digital identity as an after-thought, or as vendors tend to call it, a service wrapper.

Neither am I alone in becoming concerned how people appear progressively architected out of being able to benefit from use of certain systems, either through incredibly ill-conceived user journeys or poor service design, by virtue of their age, their place of residence or other factors impacting their demographic profile.

The situation is entirely avoidable.

Time for a fresh approach

Inclusion is one of the core precepts informing the creation of The New Consortium for Digital Identity, which is gaining support in the private sector, in the third sector and in the public sector. A start has been made. But there is a lot more to do.

Government programmes such as Inclusive Economy Partnership (IEP) led by Shevaun Haviland, Deputy Director, Business Partnerships at Cabinet Office, quite rightly seek to close gaps between the haves and the have-nots, for example when it comes to being able to access financial services. The exact same principle applies to digital and, with digital, the vital ability for users to prove who they are online and in person when accessing services provided by government, business and civil society.

We need to draw attention to the real risk of an inadvertent two-tier system occurring between users with a digital identity and those without.

At a high-level view, the ‘Digital Identity. For all.’ campaign seeks to do just that. A company of our comparative size and our relative market share cannot hope to do that alone. But harnessed with like-minded firms in GovTech, in FinTech and in RegTech we stand a better chance.

For old times sake

A crack in the plasterwork between public sector and private sector digital identity became obvious even to outsiders as well as to tech industry insiders when sign-ups and sign-ins for GOV UK Verify were shown to be well short of the volumes lauded in 2016 — growth that could only be described as “lazy”when government moved to entice private sector to help boost the number of users signed up to Verify to 25 million by 2020.

Many insiders I have spoken with regard Department for Work and Pensions as a potential saviour for Verify; the count of sign-ups and sign-ins using Verify would grow by an order of magnitude if, for example, people were aware and able to assert their identity and eligibility to Universal Credit using Verify complemented with other attributes. In fact, according to the Verify Dashboard, a “Universal Credit Digital Service” service exists.

Calls for greater pace of change

The need to try something different and a bit more radical was the topic of discussions, both in open forums and in private meetings. The concept of a consortium began to emerge quite naturally during conversations I had across several months prior to 18 May 2018 when I announced the launch of a New Consortium for Digital Identity at a conference in Westminster organised by Think Digital Partners.

Since then, conversations have deepened and the idea is gaining support.

That crack widened to become a gulf when, in October, two of the seven Identity Providers decided not to renew contracts with Cabinet Office’s arm Government Digital Service.

In the same piece, I was quoted as saying that progress on assuring mass adoption of digital identity under the Verify flag has been held back by vacillation and opacity which almost kiboshed the entire scheme on more than one occasion.

Acknowledging that, despite all previous attempts, I am persuaded the sector must work together in a different way to build something of gravity.

Members of the consortium wish to share the common objective of stimulating and accelerating an open competitive market driven by the private sector for digital identity and digital attributes, but for which Government will become a consumer not a producer.

Consortium members will commit to delivering digital identity which is ubiquitous, compliant to government identity assurance standards and which is truly interoperable.

This all aligns the stated intention confirmed by Nic Harrison formerly director at Government Digital Service, now at Department for Work and Pensions, in his keynote on 18 May at the same ‘Think Digital Identity for Government’ conference.

Rights and responsibilities

Listed companies always use disclaimers before issuing any forward looking statement. But here is one I am prepared to issue today with no caveats.

As an industry, if we don’t work together to assure the availability of digital identity for all then we must be prepared to be answerable for depriving people their right as citizens to the benefits of digital economy as a whole.

Equality and inclusion means Digital Identity. For all.

Frank Joshi is director of Mvine Ltd, an established British SME specialising in next generation platforms that power the digital economy.

First published by Government Computing, 27 November 2018.