We don’t yet have a date, but we know it’s coming. At some point this month, probably soon, the government’s online Verify scheme will at last give government departments a centralised way to digitally identify each citizen as they go about their business. The DVLA, Defra and HMRC will be part of the first wave of public beta testing, and while renewing your driving licence or doing your taxes may not quite become fun, it should at least be quicker, and won’t involve digging out any documents or posting things.
Not that everyone will be pleased. Labour spent billions of pounds, and most of the noughties, trying to launch compulsory ID cards against implacable opposition, eventually launching an optional version just in time for it to be scrapped by the newly formed coalition government. Nevertheless, a cadre of libertarians continues to live in fear of ID cards re-entering their lives, doubtless through some sinister back door.
Could Verify be it? Well, there are some important differences. First, there is no card. The whole point of the Verify scheme is to make most government services, in the government’s own phrase, “digital by default”. Second, it is optional as well, at least for now, so the best course of action for people who don’t want to use it is probably, you know, not to use it. Third, the government digital service has gone to quite a lot of trouble to avoid holding a vast database of all your personal information. Instead it will hold merely a lot of your personal information, while the information needed for the verifying process will be handled by your choice of private company – Verizon or Experian to begin with, plus Digidentity or the Post Office by the end of the year.
Users must input their name, sex, address and date of birth, demonstrate their identity with information from their bank or driving licence, and then undergo a background check, perhaps involving their credit history. After 10 minutes (“usually”) they get their key to the system. At no time will the government hold that key, and the identity companies will be banned from sharing the information with anybody. Let’s hope their servers are secure.
