Patients at a Brisbane General Practice clinic are the national guinea pigs for the Federal Government’s new digital identification verification system.
Announced in August, Services Australia’s Trust Exchange (TEx) aims to securely share information from government-issued cards.
Federal Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said the Queensland pilot, currently underway, was a proof of concept trial for the new system.
Minister Shorten said the GP clinic and its patients were testing the first prototype of TEx, which would “help give them more control over how they share their personal information with services and businesses in the future”.
He said the world-first TEx trust exchange would give Australians the ability to verify their identity and credentials without needing to hand over superfluous personal information and sometimes without exchanging any personal information at all.
“The Government has been working with industry on proofs of concepts to ensure they are well placed to utilise the capabilities of TEx, which has resulted in a commitment by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia to take part in a future test pilot.
“Protecting people’s data using the world-leading TEx, where no hard copies of information needs to be handed over, is akin to when Australians moved from using cheques to tap and pay – it’s revolutionary.”
Minister Shorten said during the pilot Services Australia would work with research participants to test a concept to register as a new patient at the medical centre, using the myGov app and government-issued cards.
“Participants use the myGov app to scan a provided QR code. They then confirm in the myGov app what test information from Medicare, DVA veterans’ cards or Centrelink concession cards they consent to share with the medical centre.
“The verified information is then securely transferred to a test device at the practice.”
He said these types of solutions could reduce the need for people to hand over full documents for a business to store on their systems, helping to reduce the risk of cyber hacks.
“I want Australians to have access to secure, quick and easy ways to store and share their information and save businesses time and money.”
Minister Shorten said feedback from the testing would inform solutions and ensure information sharing options were fit for purpose and simple for people to use.
