Digital

Digital Identity Scotland – A beta industry event

October 1, 2020 by 2 Comments | Category Digital Identity, Digital Scotland

Gavin Ross, Policy Lead for Digital Identity in the Scottish Government, provides an update on the work of the Digital Identity Scotland programme.

In our last Blog, we highlighted that our Prototype work had drawn to a close and we’re pleased to now share a Report of the Attribute Prototype activity. We are also able to share a research report on attribute based Smart Entitlements which we commissioned to explore potential services which could be developed using an attribute based approach and could help to inform our plans.

Work on the Prototype gave us confidence that users broadly understood that the concept of a credential that was reusable across services. Users were also familiar with 2-factor authentication e.g. via SMS; and there was support for creating and using an attribute store. Activity has since continued to explore these and other issues with users. The programme has been helped in that with the addition of people to our User Centred Design (UCD) workstream.

They will help us work with a range of users to design a service that improves the way public service providers/ organisations prove and assure information a user provides about themselves. In doing so, we will improve the experience for all. By understanding user needs, we will be able to develop and communicate the benefits of using Digital Identity Scotland. For instance, speeding up access to public services whilst also maintaining privacy and reducing the risk of security or data breaches. We will ensure to offer a Blog about the UCD work in the future.

As I noted earlier, we also commissioned Mydex CIC and Digital Health & Care Institute to undertake some research for us. They have delivered a report on the potential for services where a user could demonstrate entitlement to that service based on multiple attributes they can provide at point of use or elsewhere. The research is being used to influence thinking and help the DIS team understand the possibilities for attribute based services in Scotland.

We are now moving forward towards the next phase where we take all this activity and all we’ve learnt and plan for a Beta service. Indeed, we are holding an Industry Engagement event on 6 October. This is for potential suppliers of all components of a future service e.g credential providers, brokers, attribute providers and identity providers.

Given the current circumstances, we have decided to provide this as a prepared presentation. This will be made available for access on the afternoon of 6 October, along with the script, slides and associated papers covering draft requirements and some questions we’d be keen to pose to potential suppliers to help us.

If you are a potential supplier, and you haven’t already signed up to receive a link to these materials, please get in touch: digitalidentityscotland@gov.scot

Get in touch.

Please feel free to get in touch at the email address above if you have any other feedback or questions.


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Comments

  • A scottish citizen says:

    Hi,

    You do realize that granting citizens access to personal data stores where the state can carte blanche dump its data on unsuspecting citizens may be a bad idea. The state has a responsibility for protecting its citizens but this approach delegates the responsibility to the citizen, and therefore when citizens accounts get breached (as they will) the state can happily blame the citizen for their loss.

    The entire approach of using a personal data store is flawed and dangerous and I doubt it is legal to transfer the ownership of this data from the state to the citizen.

    This is an utter waste of public money and those responsible should be forced to use the system and publicly share their login details to it. I’m sure they will not be keen to be responsible for their data then.

    And please note, unlike your insane idea, i will choose to comment anonymously before your government services force me to use a single identifiable identity.

    • Digital Directorate Communications says:

      Thank you for your comment. For clarity, people will have a choice whether or not to use the service we are developing. They will also have the choice to store any of their information for reuse and, if so, choice about the specific information they wish to store.

      Digital Identity Scotland

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