What is the Australian Government Digital ID System?
The Australian Government Digital ID System provides a way for Australians to safely and securely verify their ID online to access online services.
The Australian Government Digital ID System is delivered by multiple agencies, they are
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Services Australia
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The Australian Taxation Office
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The Department of Finance.
These agencies are working to provide a secure and convenient way to verify your ID online. The system is used by many other services to verify their users' ID.
This is a ‘federated’ system. A federated Digital ID system provides you with a choice of who you create your Digital ID with. A Commonwealth, state or territory (public) Digital ID provider, or an industry (private) Digital ID provider.
What is a Digital ID provider?
A Digital ID provider helps you set up and manage your Digital ID, usually through an app.
To be part of the Australian Government’s Digital ID System, a provider must be accredited. An accredited provider must demonstrate that it meets a range of high standards. These standards include privacy, cyber security and fraud control and more.
Digital ID providers within the Australian Government’s Digital ID System can’t track which services you access. This is a privacy and security protection built into the Australian Government’s Digital ID System. This protection ensures data is stored, transmitted and disposed of securely. You can be confident about how your information is held.
Using a Digital ID
When accessing services, you often need to verify your ID. Different services have different ID requirements. The requirements depend on the level of risk in providing the service to the wrong person.
To set up a Digital ID, you will need to provide the details of your ID documents to a Digital ID provider. The details are then verified digitally with the agency who issued the document. Details can also be verified against characteristics of the document. This will verify that the document is real and owned by you.
For example: Driver license details are verified by the state or territory authority. Passport details are verified by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Once your details are verified, the Digital ID is created. You can then use your Digital ID at any time to access connected services. With your consent, your Digital ID will only share information that service requires. This information may include your name, date of birth and email. Your documents will not be shared with any services you access. Your Digital ID provider has already verified your details and vouched for your ID to the service.
When you create your Digital ID you'll be asked what strength you want. You can choose from Basic, Standard or Strong. The documents you need to create your Digital ID vary depending on what strength Digital ID you are trying to create and the app you use to create it.
For more on ID strengths, read Digital ID proofing levels.
Why biometrics?
Biometrics in online ID verification is becoming more important. This is because data breaches are becoming more frequent with more sophisticated fraud technology. Biometrics provide an additional level of security to your personal information.
For example: if a fraudster is trying to access your account, they wouldn’t be able to verify their face. As their face wouldn’t match your photo on your documents.
Setting up biometrics
To set up a Standard strength Digital ID with myGovID, you will need to verify at least two Australian ID documents. This can include your visa and ImmiCard, or your driver licence and your Medicare card.
To strengthen your myGovID to Strong with biometrics, you just take a selfie of your face which is then matched with the photo on your passport. This checks that you are a real person, and the right person. Soon after it is verified, the photo is deleted.
