Document verification and identity management

1
Anna Johnston Chair, Australian Privacy Foundation

• Document verification and identity management
• Safeguarding Australia 2005
• 12 July 2005, Canberra

2
Risks of centralised identity models

• makes identity fraud / theft easier
• only need to hack one database, or bribe one
  person, or forge one document
• false sense of security
• remedying identity theft much harder for the
  victim
• plus privacy risks!

3
DVS what we know

• aims to tackle problem of fake foundation
  documents
• strengths
• allows dispersed identity model
• blind system, no data retained
• limitations
• wont deal with real foundation documents
  obtained fraudulently

4
DVS what we dont know

• cost of problem intended to fix?
• cost of strategy (including DVS)?
• will it be effective? on what types of identity
  fraud?
• what other options are there?
• what might undermine the strategy?

5
UK examples of costs

• cost of identity fraud est. 1.3 billion pa
• approx 35 million pa to be eliminated by
  national ID card
• LSE estimates cost of national ID card at
  between 10.6 billion and 19.2 billion
• solution costs much more than problem

6
Are we all on board?

• Medicare smartcard risks becoming a de facto
  national ID card
• NSW combined driver non-driver photo ID card -
  unique and universal identifier
• Various State Federal proposals increase risk
  of identity fraud because of centralised identity
  models