The UK Government shows plans to introduce new legislation for the use of digital identities throughout modern society, and the Department of Culture, Media, and Sports (DCMS) stated that it sees digital identities being used in place of physical documents such as passports and driving licenses.
The DCMS emphasized that the digital ID would not replace physical papers but may be used if desired, and there is no law that requires you to obtain a digital identity in the UK.
The Office for Digital Identities and Attributes will be established as a new technological regulating authority (ODIA).
“ODIA will have the power to issue an easily recognized trustmark to certified digital identity organizations, to prove they meet the security and privacy standards needed to handle people’s data in a safe and consistent way,†said the DCMS.
2 types of Digital identities: Centralized vs decentralized.
The planned implementation would be based on a centralized model, with authorized third-party organizations managing many people’s digital identities in the UK. This contradicts the model proposed by Microsoft, which also released its thoughts on digital IDs on Thursday, stating that a decentralized model should be utilized.
“With decentralization, you can prove the person is the genuine owner of the real-world identity by verifying their digital signed credentials,†it said. “Individuals can use a secure, encrypted wallet to store their identity data and easily control access to it.
“A decentralized identity could replace the need for usernames and passwords altogether and work with other forms of authentication to provide the required level of attestation.â€
The UK government has been attempting to build a safe digital verification system for many years. However, it was a flop that drew a lot of criticism.
