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As the government moves towards the introduction of a digital ID system, it is seeking feedback from the people it will impact, including real estate professionals who are expected to be early adopters.
Now in the stage of developing legislation for an economy-wide digital ID system, the federal government is looking to expand what it already offers for federal services.
This system will involve a voluntary accreditation process for service providers that want to accept digital ID as a form of identity verification.
Privacy advocates have long been advocating for its use in real estate, particularly given how identity documents are often required to apply for rental properties, leaving prospective tenants providing multiple copies of their sensitive information to numerous agencies that have different platforms governed by varying rules and controls for storing data. As such, real estate agencies and the rental application platforms they use are widely expected to be among the first to use the system when the government begins rolling it out to the private sector.
While the system is not intended to become mandatory – ensuring that people have multiple methods of proving they are who they say they are – states are increasingly looking to crack down on the risks of identity verification in real estate.
NSW, for example, has signalled its intent to put data privacy measures in place to control the handling of private information when it comes to rental applications. The state is also in the process of developing its own digital identity verification tool.
The federal legislation has been in the works for a long time. As Katy Gallagher, Minister for Finance, Women and Public Service, noted in a recent address, the development of a national digital ID system actually began in 2014 under the former government.
There are already 10.5 million Australians using digital ID to access government services, meaning that a large cohort will be ready to take up the system when it jumps to private transactions.
Currently, the federal government is asking for feedback on the development of the legislation around digital ID via three different methods:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juliet Helmke
Based in Sydney, Juliet Helmke has a broad range of reporting and editorial experience across the areas of business, technology, entertainment and the arts. She was formerly Senior Editor at The New York Observer.
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