Eftpos readies national digital ID brokerage rollout

Eftpos’s new digital ID brokerage will let Australians use a variety of identification modes for verification.

A card swiping machine that handles eftpos transactions.

Australians will be able to use a range of digital IDs to verify their identity when they transact. It’s an initiative by Eftpos which has announced that its new digital identity brokerage solution, connectID, is live and running as a stand-alone FinTech and a fully owned eftpos subsidiary.

Eftpos began developing connectID mid last year, aiming to make it easier for Australians to share, store and receive personal identity information online.

It‘s not offering an alternate digital ID service. Instead it is broking existing ones. It takes existing digital IDs, whether it be from Australia Post, the federal or a state government and more, and offers them to merchants in a one-stop shop. Merchants are then equipped to verify customers. It means shoppers and other customers will be able to use a range of digital IDs to verify who they are when they make a purchase.

“If a customer in a store needs to verify their identity with a digital ID, they can,” says eftpos in a media statement.

In normal everyday shopping, customers don’t normally need to show an ID when they buy something, but eftpos says there are occasions when they do, such as buying alcohol, poll chemicals, knives and spray paints.

Eftpos CEO Stephen Benton

Eftpos however is going beyond facilitating retail, saying connectIDs system could be used for mining heavy equipment license checks, and even police checks.

Naturally eftpos’s system will have to be 100 per cent secure itself. It says it is working with identity and authentication provider SecureKey to ensure it is. It says SecureKey has a proven track record in comparable markets such as Canada.

Eftpos CEO Stephen Benton says the focus is now on expanding the range of partner organisations and applications.

“For the connectID business to keep advancing and growing, it needs to keep running like a nimble FinTech at an operational level to pursue its goal of creating a national identity infrastructure for all Australians,” Mr Benton says.

“ConnectID is collaboratively working with governments, businesses, online merchants, banks and other identity providers with a view to building identity into our national payments infrastructure, as well as other commercial applications for all Australians and Australian businesses.”

He says eftpos is uniquely placed to offer this service, particularly for interactions requiring a payment. Eftpos says its entrepreneur in residence, Rob Allen, has spearheaded the connectID initiative since the beginning.

“In Australia there is a real need to facilitate identity verification methods to help reduce the instances of fraud and identity theft, and improve ‘digital trust’ between customers and vendors, Mr Allen says.

Eftpos entrepreneur in residence Rob Allen

“We aim to seamlessly combine identity and payments transactions within the same flow and create even better customer experiences.”

Greg Wolfond, founder and CEO of SecureKey, says as digital identity standards and ecosystems rapidly develop and evolve, ensuring the security of users’ information while enabling the convenience of this technology is a top priority.

“Eftpos in Australia and the industry in Canada, have both demonstrated a particularly strong appetite for its widespread use as the two economies emerge from the global pandemic,” Mr Wolfond says.

Eftpos says that while connectID securely aids the identification process, it does not store the identity data.

It says connectID has applied to become the first non-government accredited operator of a digital identity exchange in Australia.

“As interoperability is key to the connectID solution, it is designed to work within the Federal Government’s Trusted Digital Identity Framework and the financial industry’s TrustID framework, as well as emerging international standards in distributed digital identity credentials.”