The following report is by Biometric Update:
New Zealand’s digital identity regulator is now live. The Trust Framework Authority, which will determine which organizations are verified to provide compliant digital identity services, is up and running as of July 1.
The digital ID regulator is expected to appoint its director in the coming days.
New Zealand’s shift toward digital credentials is intended to expedite access to government services and transactions like opening a bank account, by moving identity verification to mobile and away from physical documents. Digital ID will also eventually be accepted for age verification when accessing age-restricted goods and services.
Digitizing Government Minister Judith Collins has indicated that it is a precursor to the government’s planned launch of a mobile driver’s license (mDL), which the New Zealand Transit Authority (NZTA) began piloting in May with the trial launch of an app. There is also a plan to digitize the process to apply for and renew passports.
The digital ID scheme is opt-in, and Collins has addressed concerns about potential privacy risks and government overreach. Privacy complaints have spiked in New Zealand in the wake of facial recognition deployments by retailers. The nation’s privacy commissioner is pushing for tougher regulations on facial recognition and other biometric systems, and has issued a call for public feedback on a draft biometrics code governing the use of biometric technologies.
New Zealanders are familiar with the risk of data breaches and the need to ensure that digital identity providers can be trusted with their data. In 2023, a major data breach by financial services firm Latitude that exposed the data of one in five people in the country.
In a first reading of the Digital Identity Services Trust Framework Bill in 2021, then-Minister for the Digital Economy and Communications David Clark estimated that around $1.5 billion (US$910M) worth of value could be added to New Zealand’s economy “just through the increased security that this framework would provide.”
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Proverbs 29:5 A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet.
The WinePress has a number of articles on digital IDs, their rapid rollout and the necessity of them to facilitate CBDCs, tokenization and social credit.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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