‘National Digital Identity Program’ to be introduced to Canadians

Canada’s Government of Canada’s digital infrastructure states that the next step to making services more convenient is to introduce a federal “Digital Identity Program.”

Citing the pandemic, the report outlines how a federal framework would also be integrated with provincial digital identities, True North confirmed on Wednesday, August 10.

The Canadian government released the report regarding their Digital Ambition in 2022.

The report released on August 4, stated: “Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadians have increasingly worked, shopped, learned, and engaged with government online.”

“Their expectation and need for easy to use, accessible digital options continue to grow, and many public- and private-sector organizations are transforming to use digital technologies to deliver better programs and services.”

“Now more than ever, we have work to do to make it easier for Canadians to interact with the Government of Canada, and we are committed to better serving Canadians in a digital age.”

“This will require modern, integrated systems and an unwavering focus on the needs and experience of citizens. We have made progress, but we must continue to improve.”

“During the pandemic, the government quickly deployed new and innovative programs to support Canadians, but we have also seen examples where we can do more to deliver secure, reliable, and easy to use digital services.”

In June former privacy commissioner, Daniel Therrien, told MPs that there is a potential for digital identity to be “harmful to privacy” if designed incorrectly.

Daniel said: “Digital ID, like all technologies, can be helpful and privacy-protective or harmful to privacy depending on how it is designed.”

“It is certainly conceivable that digital ID could enhance the verification process and the authentication process, allowing citizens to have access to services,” he added.

“It is certainly possible that digital ID would lead to the data being available to many players or actors, corporate or governmental, that should not have access to all of this data, but it doesn’t have to be designed that way.”

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