What if government credentials - like a Medicare card in your myGov app wallet - could be shared and verified with a service provider as a tap and go transaction?
We’re exploring new ways you can share your details from your myGov app wallet with a third party so that it’s secure, straightforward and done with your consent.
Verifiable credentials are digital versions of traditional, physical credentials, like a Medicare card. They’re most often stored in a digital wallet on your smart device.
Right now, you can add credentials to your myGov app like your Medicare card, DVA veterans’ card and Centrelink concession card. We want to test how you could share this credential with a provider who needs it, selecting what information you share and so the provider knows it’s verified and authentic.
We’re testing how this could work in the future with use cases such as being a new patient with a medical provider. In our test, you could share details from your Medicare, DVA, or concession cards straight from your digital wallet. With a few clicks, you select which details to share, confirm your consent and the medical provider gets the verified information.
Importantly, this concept could help avoid future data breaches. A service provider doesn’t need to keep a copy of your cards or credentials on their systems. It means they’re less of a target for a cyber attack.
Lisa Jansen from the project team said we’re testing how the technology works, as well as how people feel using technology in this way.
‘We’re designing this so in future, patient data stored by businesses can be minimised,’ Lisa said.
‘The data is kept with the issuing authority - for example Medicare - and on your personal device. This reduces copies of your data being kept in multiple places.’
This is just one way we’re exploring how Australia’s Digital ID system could evolve to deliver secure and easy to use verifiable credentials. And by building to international standards, such as W3C and ISO, we can work with other government agencies and industry on more use cases.
Our testing activities will finish in February 2025. We’ll share our findings with the Department of Finance to inform the next steps.