Face scanning falls flat as part of digital credentials push

Victorians claiming the solar rebate are being used as unwitting "public beta" testers for the state government's new smartphone-based facial recognition system, with almost half of attempted identity checks failing in the first two weeks.

Solar Victoria has this month begun using Service Victoria's new facial recognition system as an alternative to the traditional 100-point paper-based identity check required to prove eligibility for the solar rebate scheme.

Solar Victoria now requires identity checks via a facial recogntition smartphone app.

Users are required to scan their passport, drivers license and face, using their smartphone’s camera. After matching the faces, the service verifies the user’s identity against government records. An "electronic identity credential" is generated, linked to the user's smartphone, allowing them to verify their identity in future using an SMS code sent to their number.

Solar Victoria is the first state government agency to take advantage of the new service, which went live on July 1 despite the fact the facial recognition system is still at the "public beta" testing stage. The system was tested with fewer than 60 people before going live, due to the fact that a real passport is required to complete the verification process.

Illustration: Matt GoldingCredit:

The Victorian government intends to extend the facial recognition program to other government services, but is yet to announce a timetable for its expansion.

Service Victoria's system was developed in accordance with the national Trusted Digital Identity Framework. It is one of several government online identification services relying on facial recognition, developed across the country as the federal government establishes the Govpass national digital identity verification service.

Forty per cent of Solar Victoria's attempted facial recognition identity checks failed in the first two weeks of July, with users not given the option up front to bypass facial recognition in favour of submitting their paperwork manually.

Users were forced to repeat the facial and document scanning process several times — in some cases for more than an hour — before being offered an alternative way to submit their paperwork. After waiting months for the solar rebate scheme to reopen, applicants were told they would lose their spot on the waiting list if they did not complete their registration within 14 days.

Solar Victoria's own website acknowledges issues with the facial recognition system, urging those claiming the rebate to make "successive attempts" to complete the scans.

Melbourne retiree Julie spent 90 minutes attempting to use the passport scanning and facial recognition to compete her solar rebate application last week, before the system insisted that she would need to contact Solar Victoria and process her identity check manually.

"If you're going to foist this kind of thing on the public, you need to be sure that it works," Julie says. "Not everyone wants to fight with a smartphone when you can just as easily send off the paperwork.

"Having waited months to claim the solar rebate and then being forced to fight with facial recognition, while fearing you'll lose your rebate, is an appalling way to treat people."

Service Victoria issued three updates to the facial recognition system within the first two weeks of launching, improving onscreen instructions and adding the ability for users to abandon the process more quickly when it fails.

Smartphone-based identification is offered "to provide a much faster application process for those wishing to use it", according to a Solar Victoria spokesperson.

"We understand some applicants had issues using the new facial recognition technology and we have provided additional information and instructional videos to help guide customers through the system", the spokesperson says.

"This has also freed up the time of Solar Victoria staff — who would have otherwise had to manually verify around 3500 documents — giving staff more time to process applications and provide assistance to customers."