The Digital ID Act 2024 has been passed by Parliament and will commence by 1 December 2024.

The Act will expand the way individuals will be able to verify their identity online by establishing a voluntary accreditation scheme for providers of Digital ID services in addition to the Australian Government’s accredited Digital ID provider, myGovID. Background.

Digital ID will be available instead of providing physical ID documents.

The ACCC will be appointed as the initial Digital ID regulator

The OAIC will be the privacy regulator of the Digital ID system.

The Department of Finance is consulting on the proposed 2024 Digital ID Accreditation Rules, Accreditation Data Standards, and Digital ID Rules which support the Digital ID Act.

Biometric information

The OAIC will particularly protect the use of biometric information which can be collected, used, and disclosed by accredited entities (where authorised by their accreditation conditions), for the purposes of verifying the identity of an individual, and/or authenticating an individual to their Digital ID.

Biometric information collected for the purposes of verifying identity must be destroyed immediately after verification is complete.

Biometric information collected for authentication purposes can be retained where the individual has consented to this so the biometric can be used to authenticate the individual in the future, for example, to log back into a Digital ID account using a face biometric match with the individual’s consent.

The rules may require that biometrics are stored in an encrypted manner or on the individual’s local device to prevent access to the original image while maintaining the authentication functionality.

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