Queensland Police, CUA to trial Australia Post's digital identification play
The Australian Postal Corporation has signed up a bunch of customers including government departments to trial its digital identity platform, touted by Australia Post as a convenient way to verify one's identity online.
The government-owned postal service will be rolling out its Digital ID system to the Queensland Police Service, credit union CUA, job outsourcing site Airtasker, and foreign exchange company Travelex over the next couple of months.
According to AusPost, the Digital ID smartphone app requests verification once, negating the need to repeatedly use several forms of identity or to have numerous passwords to access products and services.
The post office already employs its identification system for some of its own products and services, including MyPost parcel collect and its mail redirection service.
CUA will initially offer Digital ID for new members applying for a CUA eSaver Reward or eSaver Boost account online or via their mobile device, the credit union said in a statement.
"As a member-owned organisation, there is a lot of benefit in us collaborating with a large organisation like Australia Post, allowing us to use their expertise to bring innovations like this to members much sooner than if we were to develop them ourselves," CUA chief digital officer Sue Coulter said.
Airtasker will use Digital ID to allow its users to obtain an identity "badge" to prove who they are. It follows a partnership signed with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in February that sees the bank provide the outsourcing company with an identity verification function for its online platform.
Travelex will use the technology as part of its know your customer checks, while Queensland Police Service will incorporate Digital ID into its national police clearance certificates process to be launched later this year.
AusPost announced in May that it was teaming up with the federal government's Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) to create a proof of concept that integrates its digital ID system with the Commonwealth's digital identity framework.
Before he resigned in July, former Australia Post managing director and group CEO Ahmed Fahour said he believed an identity solution, like Digital ID, could unlock significant benefits for everyday Australians doing business with government process.
"Our research shows these processes cost the Australian economy up to AU$11 billion a year in proving identity alone, and can be unlocked by making it easy, safe, and secure to prove that you are who you say you are when interacting online," he said.
Last August, the postal service detailed its plan to run elections using blockchain-based technology.
"The emergence of cryptocurrencies on the technology known as blockchain have highlighted opportunities to repurpose that technology to capture various digital transactions in immutable, distributed, and secure ways," Australia Post state director Victorian Government and Tasmania Tim Adamson said at the time.
"In many ways, voting is an ideal use case for blockchain technology application beyond cryptocurrency.
"With demand for digitisation high and technology shifts opening up new approaches, we believe that now is the time to solve the digital voting challenge."
Australia Post signed a 12-month extension with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) last month that sees the organisation continue to provide passport services.
DFAT is conducting a procurement process for the provision of the passport services following July 1, 2018.
Outgoing Blackmores CEO Christine Holgate will be the corporation's next managing director and CEO, assuming her position in October.
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