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Draft Recommendation on the Governance of Digital Identity
Description
Being able to prove you are who you say you are underpins access to a variety of essential services across the public and private sector. This can include reviewing your medical records, traveling abroad, running a business, or opening a bank account. Traditional identity verification involves physical proof of one's identity, such as a birth certificate, driver's licence, ID card, or passport, which are typically provided by trusted government sources and recognise important details like one's name, birthdate, and place of birth.
As essential services have moved online, digital channels have emerged to handle identity verification processes and proofs and authentication of verified identity claims. Digital credentials and wallets, eID cards, and mobile ID applications provided by either public or private entities have all contributed to the evolution of the digital identity landscape. Despite these advancements, in many countries there remains often a lack of cross-sector collaboration, interoperability and poor-quality user experience. As more and more essential services are accessed online and across borders, improving the governance and implementation of digital identity systems in line with user needs becomes important.
The OECD’s Public Governance Committee and its Working Party of Senior Digital Government Officials (E-Leaders) have developed a draft Recommendation on the Governance of Digital Identity that encourages its Adherents to develop and govern digital identity systems as digital public infrastructure. This involves creating and aligning sound and future-proof policies and regulations for solution providers, as well as promoting cross-sector coordination, international collaboration, and a healthy market for identity solutions. The development of digital identity systems should be rooted in the needs of users and service providers, respecting democratic values and human rights, including by ensuring the inclusion of vulnerable groups and minorities, and the protection of privacy.
The draft Recommendation on the Governance of Digital Identity aims to support Adherents’ efforts to ensure reliable and trusted access to digital identity for natural and legal persons that is portable across locations, technologies and sectors.
The draft Recommendation presents a set of principles organised around three pillars:
- Developing user-centred and inclusive digital identity systems
- Strengthening the governance of digital identity
- Enabling cross-border use of digital identity
The consultation is open to government officials, civil society organisations, international organisations and interested citizens and stakeholders.
If approved by the OECD Council, the Recommendation will form the basis for the OECD to serve as a forum for exchanging information, guidance, and monitoring activities and emerging trends around the governance of digital identity.
What is an OECD Recommendation?
An OECD Recommendation is a legal instrument adopted by the OECD Council. Recommendations are not legally binding but represent a political commitment to the principles they contain and an expectation that Adherents will do their best to implement them. There are currently around 180 OECD Recommendations in force. For more information, please consult the online Compendium of OECD Legal Instruments.
Purpose of the public consultation
The aim of the public consultation is to ensure that the final text reflects the experience, needs and aspirations of the international community concerning the governance of digital identity.
Inputs collected during the public consultation will help inform the finalisation of the draft Recommendation. They will be analysed by the OECD Secretariat and a revised version will be discussed by the relevant OECD bodies. Ultimately, the Recommendation will require the approval of the Public Governance Committee after which it would be presented to the OECD Council for adoption.
Guidance on providing feedback
Parties interested in commenting on the draft Recommendation can send written comments in English or French to eleaders@oecd.org or comment directly through the Engagement Platform no later than 31st March 2023.
Comments submitted on behalf of another person or group of persons should identify all enterprises or individuals who are members of the collective group, or the person(s) on whose behalf the commentator(s) is/are acting.
Your rights
Inputs received by email will be analysed and the OECD may publish them, but only in an aggregated and anonymous manner. All comments posted via the Engagement Platform will be subject to moderation but should be expected to be made public.
Any personal data provided as part of this consultation is protected consistent with the OECD Data Protection Rules. If you have further queries or complaints related to the processing of your personal data, please contact the OECD Data Protection Officer. If you need further assistance in resolving claims related to personal data protection you can contact the OECD Data Protection Commissioner.
Questions?
For further information please contact eleaders@oecd.org
Proposal: Amend this to read: “in order to increase access to an inclusive, secure, efficient and trusted digital identity solution."
Suggestion: Separate these two groups so that issues impacting 'vulnerable groups' and 'minorities' are canvassed separately, given variance in the needs for these stakeholder groups. For example, to protect minorities groups, there would be a need to "Promote inclusivity, equity, and social justice in digital identity solutions " with a focus on addressing fairness, cultural sensitivity, user empowerment, accessibility, and representation challenges.
Ensure inclusion through accessibility:
- Device & platform agnostic to include all users
- Robust performance and bias monitoring
Cloud-based delivery
Ensure users are protected from device-based risk:
- No reliance on users’ device for security
- Mitigate risk from synthetic or compromised devices
Ensure agile response to evolving threats:
- Ongoing threat intelligence to evolve defences
Ensure simple and secure identity recovery:
- Users should not be required to re-enrol when devices are changed or replaced
Ensure that users are relieved of burden of responsibility for security:
- Implementation of new detection algorithms must not rely on or compel the user to update their personal device
It would be helpful to include more granularity here, such there is a greater consistency of approach to what being user centric actually means. This would be worth the additional text in the paper due to the central importance of having a user-centric approach.
Ensure inclusion through user choice:
- No imposition or requirement for special device hardware or sensors
- Ability to securely authenticate on any device with a user-facing camera
More to follow.
Then we recently were given an option for the hardware signatures, but that requires a Windows computer, to download a file, to follow instructions, install a certificate, etc. At the end, most people either don't use it, or end up calling some Tech Guy to install the app and configure it for them, to write down the codes, etc. Lack of cybersec protocols in companies and individuals.
Attention should be paid to UX ( User Experience ), in order to reduce friction and ensure the problems are being resolved and by the technology, -- This is related to the Feedback Loop for iteration. ( Agile )
Can this also be more specific, like a requirement? Or if we cannot issue requirements, can we assign options and points to measure how much each point is weighted?
I am going to mention a couple of problems I haven seen in our current attempts in Costa Rica
We rolled out e-Signatures a while ago, USB keys and eCards, and they required a special reader or USB adapter. They are only issued at banks and have a cost of $80~ in CRC. It requires you to take a day off and pay $80. That is not only unaffordable for a lot of the population but also inconvenient, unattractive and impractical. For other processes, you may access non-standard and even unsecured websites. ( leaving out another portion of the population with no computers, or no printers, o scanners). At the end, the lowest income earners will not sacrifice a day off to do many legal paperwork and even prefer to not have a bank account and be paid in cash, causing informality. I myself don't hav one.