Feds Conducted Research on National ‘Digital Credentials’ the Same Month They Announced Digital ID Plan

A person passes her smartphone over a scanner as she uses the new mobile app for expedited passport and customer screening being unveiled for international travelers arriving at Miami International Airport in Miami, Fla., on March 4, 2015. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

As part of a $2.4 million contract, the federal government Privy Council Office commissioned focus group research on “digital credentials" on Aug. 24, 2022.

On Aug. 4, 2022, the same month the focus group was commissioned, a government report, titled “Canada’s Digital Ambition 2022,” announced the Liberals planned to introduce digital infrastructure.

“The next step in making services more convenient to access is a federal Digital Identity Program, integrated with pre-existing provincial platforms,” said the report. “Digital identity is the electronic equivalent of a recognized proof-of-identity document (for example, a driver’s license or passport) and confirms that ‘you are who you say you are’ in a digital context.”

‘Digital Credentials’ Focus Group

In conducting the research, a small group of six adult Nova Scotia residents—described as “middle class individuals who are worried about the economy and employment”—were each paid $100 to $125 to take part in an online focus group on the topic of digital ID. Participants were sharply divided on the topic.

When asked if they were aware of the concept, few were, noted the Sept. 7, 2022, report, obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter. The focus group was told that “digital credentials represent a way for individuals to provide information about themselves electronically and that these credentials served as an electronic equivalent of physical documents,” added the report, titled “Continuous Qualitative Data Collection of Canadian Views.”

While a number of participants thought that digital credentials might be a more convenient way for individuals to present their identification, many expressed concerns about the widespread usage of this technology, according to the report.

Concerns cited included “security risks of storing sensitive personal information,” with participants expressing that “digital credentials could be vulnerable to hackers” or at serious risk if their device was lost or stolen.

The majority of participants preferred physical identification. Some felt digital credentials may be useful, as long as they did not replace physical cards entirely.

The Quebec government’s vaccine passport, called VaxiCode, on a phone in Montreal on Aug. 25, 2021. Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press

The focus group asked participants to identify possible benefits of digital credentials. The reasons given were making it easier to update personal information, and consolidating information into a single app.

Several individuals “questioned who would be able to access this data,” said the report. “Concerns were also raised that a widespread adoption of digital credentials might possibly be discriminatory towards low-income individuals,” it added.

Participants responded that a digital ID would make daily life “feel far more restricted and were skeptical of assigning such high responsibility to a single department or agency to manage these credentials.”

Some also suggested older Canadians would feel isolated due to lack of familiarity with digital credentials and devices.

“Due to these factors, widespread adoption of digital credentials by Canadians may be difficult to achieve, especially among cohorts of society who may already be somewhat distrustful of public institutions,” suggested the report.

However, despite the lack of trust in a national digital ID that may have been indicated by the focus group, it appears Canada’s Liberal government is moving full-speed ahead with a national digital identification system.

‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’

On Dec. 7, Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis obtained a freedom of information request response that revealed Canada was also playing a role in a World Economic Forum (WEF) intention to bring about the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

After obtaining the documents, Lewis wrote on Twitter, “In Nov 2020 while Canadians were distracted by COVID, the Liberal govt signed a World Economic Forum-initiated Charter. The Agile Nations Charter will facilitate agile ‘rule-making’ outside of Parliament.”

Technological breakthroughs are heralding a “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” and a “more agile approach to rulemaking” will help new innovations “drive economic growth and address the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges,” states the Agile Nations Charter.

This pilot project will “test the use case end-to-end, from the issuance of the digital credentials to a user’s digital wallet, to the use of those digital credentials to obtain services and/or complete transactions” and the use of digital ID in crossing borders between participating countries.

More recently, on Jan. 30, the Dutch government said it had finalized a new traveler’s digital identity project with Ottawa, in an initiative launched by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The project will involve collaboration with the Netherlands with a biometric verification process involving an app used on a smartphone to read a chip on a physical passport.

Noé Chartier and Rachel Emmanuel contributed to this report.