Updated: Added GOV.UK Verify: IPV Operations Manual to collection.
Find out more about our approach to identity and privacy on the Identity Assurance blog.
Being able to prove your identity online easily, quickly and safely is recognised as a key enabler of internet use by the government and its users. Providers of public services such as national and local governments, major internet companies, online retailers, banks and others have to address business and security issues around identity proofing and username/password fallibility to mitigate the financial and administrative implications of identity fraud and compromise of personal data.
The Identity Assurance Programme is a core element of the digital by default policy pursued by the Government Digital Service within the Cabinet Office. The programme is working on the development of identity assurance schemes in the UK that citizens, business and devices can use online to assert their identity safely and securely, so that they can access and use public services.
Through a standards based approach, contracted and certified private sector organisations (identity providers) enable citizens to use evidence they own as part of the process for validating and verifying their identity.
Once they have proven their identity with an identity provider, the identity provider can authenticate the identity with multiple public services (relying parties) as and when required to by the citizen.
The programme uses a ‘hub’ (technical intersection) that allows identity providers to authenticate identities to relying parties without:
- government centrally storing an individual’s data
- privacy being breached by exchanging unnecessary data
- either transacting party openly sharing user details