A federal government report says the next steps to advance the Liberals’ digital infrastructure is to introduce a “Digital Identity Program.”
The announcement was revealed in a government report published Aug. 4 titled Canada’s Digital Ambition 2022, as first reported by True North.The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for government services to be “accessible and flexible in the digital age,” the report said.
“The next step in making services more convenient to access is a federal Digital Identity Program, integrated with pre-existing provincial platforms,” it reads.
“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.”
The report gives a nod to various provinces that are also moving forward with plans for a digital identity.
Privacy advocates and others, including former Conservative MP Derek Sloan, are concerned that any sort of digital ID could lead to a China-style social credit system, which evaluates citizens based on trustworthiness to the state.
Central banks in Canada and elsewhere are developing digital currencies to be integrated into a “Digital ID” program, the petition states. It had received over 28,000 signatures as of Aug. 12.
“The dangers that this new program poses to upholding civil liberties and privacy rights, and the clear opportunities for abuse of governmental authority it presents in terms of surveillance and compelled behaviour, using access to basic resources as a tool of coercion, are ominous,” the petition reads.
“They point toward progression to a dystopian communist Chinese-style ‘social credit’ system.”
The posting, which is no longer online, said the successful candidate would “build and manage platform services like digital identity, digital payment, notification and engagement, user-experience data collection, and content and document management.”
“I honestly don’t know what you’re referring to (or) what the digital ID is,” he said during a Facebook-live Q&A in April, as reported by the Western Standard.
Another 83 percent of respondents said they trust governments to keep personal information safe and 76 percent of Canadians said they would be willing to share more personal information online if it meant a more convenient experience.
The online survey of over 1,000 Canadians was conducted by Burak Jacobson Research Partners from Dec 14 - 31, 2020.
Former privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien said there’s potential for digital identity to be “harmful to privacy” if designed incorrectly, while testifying to the House of Commons Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in June.
“It is certainly conceivable that digital ID could enhance the verification process and the authentication process, allowing citizens to have access to services,” Therrien said, as reported by True North.
“It is certainly possible that digital ID would lead to the data being available to many players or actors, corporate or governmental, that should not have access to all of this data, but it doesn’t have to be designed that way.”
The government also revealed it’s working with airlines to require “digital identity documents” and biometric data like facial recognition as boarding requirements, True North reported in May.
The government’s next steps for digital identity include developing a common and secure framework and launching public consultations, says report says, which was signed by Treasury Board President Mona Fortier and Chief Information Officer of Canada Catherine Luelo.
Fortier’s mandate letter charged her to work “towards a common and secure approach for a trusted digital identity platform to support seamless service delivery to Canadians across the country.”
