Why A Privacy-Driven Digital Approach Is Critical
There’s no getting away from the fact that our world is becoming ever more digitized, and making greater use of the online environment is becoming a priority for many governments. With digital access to key services such as health provision and social care likely to become the norm in many countries, ensuring that the digital identity of users is both secure and robustly verifiable is essential.
The Question of Trust
For many Governments hoping to increase their use of digital service access, the major barrier to public acceptance could lie in how their security is perceived. The public has a growing awareness of the importance of protecting their sensitive personal data and is cautious about sharing personal details. Meanwhile, statistics show a concerning trend for a lack of trust in governments around the world, with just 27% of UK citizens feeling trust in the government and just 26% of Americans and 29% of the French population sharing a similar sentiment. The highest proportion of trust in government was found in India, with 63% expressing trust [1], but this is a figure that is still far below the total population.
The Indian Aadhaar Programme
In India, a ground-breaking project has shown the value of developing a digital approach to service provision. The Aadhaar programme saw the Indian government create a biometric database of more than 1.17 billion of its citizens [3], registering this population by their unique fingerprint and iris data. This database, thought to be the most advanced of its kind worldwide, has enabled the Indian government to access accurate data relating to their population, and to deliver streamlined welfare packages. This programme offers a clear example of the benefits of a government adopting a digital approach to service provision based upon individual digital identities.
Yet the Aadhaar approach is not flawless, as the sensitive biometric data is being held on a centralized database, which is subject to the associated risks of any central cloud environment.
Fingerprint Sensors Support Digital Identity
A more secure approach is to use a fingerprint sensor, which can safely authenticate user identity for access to government services whilst removing the need to rely on a cloud-based database. By integrating this technology into an ID card, users can safely manage who has access to their sensitive personal data, as the encrypted biometric information remains stored securely within the card itself. Easy to use in making digital services accessible and highly secure, fingerprint biometrics are the key to delivering future-ready government services in a way that can be trusted and accepted by the public.
The Answer to Privacy Concerns
Fingerprint sensors meet consumer expectations for digital data security, and can pave the way to more widespread adoption of digital services. This is a global trend that will continue to grow in view of the impressive results it can deliver. For example, France’s Carte Vitale [2] is ensuring that its citizens are able to enjoy more streamlined, timely health care provision and enhancements including fingerprint biometric solutions are currently being considered. For both public and private organisations, biometrics hold the key to delivering better services while ensuring that privacy concerns are addressed.
Resources:
[1] https://www.ey.com/en_bh/government-public-sector/how-can-digital-government-connect-citizens-without-leaving-the-disconnected-behind
[2] https://en.selectra.info/moving-to-france/health/carte-vitale
[3] https://www.globalsecuritymag.com/Scan-and-deliver-the-case-for-a,20220920,130046.html
