With the passing of the Digital ID Bill 2024 by the Australian parliament, a claim went viral via a YouTube video titled “Australian Digital ID to be Rolled Out from July 1st 2024 – Digital ID to Access Social Media.”
Australians, according to the video, will not be able to access their social media accounts without using a digital identity. It’s untrue. Australia’s Digital ID system, also known as myGovID, enables people to quickly and easily identify themselves without requiring “points” of identification to be shown to various organizations.
“The tedious process of gathering 100 points of identification, which involves scanning them, printing them, and getting a physical signature on the back to confirm their authenticity, will be lessened with the use of a digital ID system,” Lauren Perry, a responsible policy specialist at the UTS Human Technology Institute, told 9news. “You can get them verified once and then you’re good to go to use them online for multiple interactions.”
The Trust Exchange (TEx) is a new digital ID and credential system created by the Australian government. Australia’s Bill Shorten, the minister for government services, declared on Tuesday, August 13, that the new system will be “world leading” and a “significant step forward for Australia’s digital infrastructure.”
At this stage, Shorten acknowledged, it’s still more of a “abstract concept.” He added, though, that the approach might improve people’s control over their sensitive information while making it simpler for them to use corporate and government services.
Are you unsure about the difference between MyGovID and the new Trust Exchange (TEx) system? This is what it implies:
The Conversation states that there are now two active government systems: MyGov and MyGovID. The main online gateway to Australian government services is called MyGov. It features the MyGov smartphone software, which enables users to display digital copies of their Medicare or Centrelink discount cards through its wallet function.
The online digital identity system used by the government is called MyGovID. It enables you to authenticate yourself to a variety of online services, such as MyGov and several other governmental institutions. Using your MyGovID, you may, for instance, access MyGov online.
Though a more refined version, Trust Exchange is connected to both MyGov and MyGovID. People will have far more choice over what personal digital information they share with organizations thanks to the new Trust Exchange system. For instance, the new method would let you enter a pub and use your phone to show that you are at least eighteen years old without disclosing any additional personal information.
If the new approach is effective, it may lessen the requirement for businesses to gather and keep such a large amount of sensitive client identifying data.
In order to verify the legitimacy or identity of organizations or services requesting identification, Trust Exchange, or TEx, will centrally store sensitive data and issue “tokens” to them.
“So when you go to an organisation, you type in their number that they give you, which is registered with the government scheme, into an app that you have on your phone,” University of the Sunshine Coast computer science lecturer Dr Erica Mealy told 9news.
“And then it contacts that organisation through the pathway that they have approved with the government and says, ‘Yes, we’ve got Erica’s app you, I can verify this is Erica’.”
The ID itself, known as myGovID, is now operational, but the legislation, which were enacted by parliament in mid-May in response to the federal budget, will take effect in December.
Individuals can choose to utilize traditional identification cards or digital IDs because it’s entirely optional.