New guardrails needed for NSW Digital ID system

The NSW government will need to implement new guardrails in law and policy to maintain community trust as it rolls out its new advanced digital identity system, academics have warned.

In a new report, a research team from the University of Technology Sydney’s Human Technology Institute have laid out how the state government can use law, governance and training to make its new digital identity system trustworthy.

The report notes that technologies expected to be used in the NSW Digital ID system, including facial recognition and liveness detection technologies, can pose risks for human rights. Report co-author Professor Edward Santow said these risks include privacy and non-discrimination concerns.

“These risks need to be well managed through good system design, strong legal protections and effective training,” he said.

“The NSW Government’s Digital ID initiative is groundbreaking, because it seeks to ‘bake in’ protections that make the system more robust, while simultaneously building public trust.”

NSW Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government Jihad Dib said the state government has kept security and privacy considerations top of mind while developing the new system. He said input from the UTS report can further enhance the system.

“As our work evolves there is great value in having an open conversation with leading experts about the way we deliver this technology to help communities understand the value and assure them of the steps we are taking to build trust in the community around government services and digital ID initiatives,” he said.

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