Being able to prove who you are is a fundamental part of modern life. We
need a more robust and secure way to check that identities are real and that
people are who they say they are.
And as more of us shop or bank over the internet using debit and credit cards,
the number of user names, PINs and passwords we have to remember in order to
prove our identity is increasing steadily. For example we have to prove
our identity every time we:
travel abroad
open a bank
account or apply for a loan
collect
a package from our local sorting office
join
a library
apply
for benefits.
Our current system for establishing identity is generally to check the individual
against a document, which can be anything from a driving licence to a utility
bill. This approach works for now, but there are many problems associated with
it:
different organisations establish identity in different ways using different
documents
utility bills and similar documents can easily be altered or forged by
people who want to create a false identity
criminals can steal documents and use them to assume other identities.
The results speak for themselves:
criminals and terrorists use multiple identities to hide their activities
passports may be issued to people who should not have them
foreign nationals are able to live and work in the UK illegally
public services are abused by people not entitled to receive them.
