The crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has boosted the deployment of eGovernment and GovTech mechanisms for the identity verification application. Balancing the right measures to contain the disease and keep the maintenance of services has triggered the effort to implement digital identity verification measures such as videoconferencing.
In an unplanned way, important steps have been taken to provide citizens with a strong digital identity that is also easy to access and use, to allow them to interact with the administration remotely.
Currently, in the post-pandemic recovery, governments are shining a light on technology for identity verification application as an engine for economic growth. The efforts are placed into increasing efficiency, reducing costs, and even increasing sustainability through innovation. The digitisation of the relationships between citizens and public and private organisations has a key role to play in this context: a study by Electronic IDentification together with IE estimates that a state could free up to 13.6% of its GDP if it manages to deploy the full potential of digital identity in a 2.0 public administration.
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Identity verification application in public administrations: a 2.0 challenge
Talking about digital public administration or public administration 2.0 means modernising the processes of verification of identity by public official at public institutions, moving towards the digital, and increasing the scope of the administration’s services through technological innovations.
Therefore, one of the practical manifestations of moving forward from the old verification of identity by public official is the possibility of carrying out procedures telematically with local, regional, and state administrations. This requires a digital identity verification application of the citizen. In other words, the administrations must verify that the applicant is who he or she claims to be and must do so by complying with all the requirements set out by the regulations in force.
You might also be interested in: eIDAS: Digital Identification Regulation in Europe
Verification of identity by public official vs. GovTech: 9 uses for identity verification application
Digital administration is more than just processing documents. Digitalisation must involve simplifying processes and reducing time for a more personalised, transparent, and accessible administration-citizen relationship. This is where the concept of GovTech comes in, a digital transformation of the public sector parallel to the ones being already carried out by other sectors such as finance (FinTech) or insurance (InsurTech).
GovTech aims to make more efficient use of the existing resources to provide a better service, eliminating duplicities. To this end, steps are being taken to apply disruptive technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, or machine learning, to automate processes and to use big data analysis in the planning of public services.
Undoubtedly, the citizen identity verification application is the cornerstone of GovTech. And this has a myriad of applications and uses, including:
- Fulfilling tax obligations, paying taxes and fines, or submitting electronic invoices.
- Management of social benefits as the ones related to unemployment, maternity, and paternity among others).
- Census registration and deregistration, requesting certificates (birth, marriage, criminal record, etc.).
- Nomination of candidacies for public employment.
- Promotion of citizen participation in decision-making processes.
- Management of grants, scholarships, and subsidies.
- Cadastral modifications.
- Civil registry applications.
- Access to medical records, requesting medical appointments, electronic prescriptions…
The digitisation of identity verification in public administrations
Some public bodies, such as the tax agency or the INSS, have made great strides in digitising their services. However, not all are advancing at the same speed or with the same success.
Online identity verification application and electronic signatures are crucial aspects in which accessibility must be one of the main points to consider.
Today we find multiple identification systems and technologies, with different scopes, levels of security, and compliance. The variety and complexity of these procedures make it difficult for citizens to access e-government, especially when obtaining an electronic signature or when a digital certificate requires a face-to-face appointment and cannot be obtained remotely.
Technologies for identity verification application
The European eIDAS regulation rules the technologies that can be used for identification in the public and private sectors.
On the one hand, there is the verification process that needs to be performed prior to obtaining the certificate or electronic signature. In this regard, video is the only remote verification technology that meets all standards and legal requirements. Other alternatives, such as personal photography or selfies, are not suitable for identity verification. Therefore, Electronic Identification’s VideoID technology is the most cost-efficient solution for this verification process due to its speed, reliability, and possibility to be used synchronously or asynchronously.
In order to identify citizens during transactions, several levels of authentication are established according to the degree of security the signature requires: simple, advanced, and qualified electronic signature. In addition to this, there are several technological alternatives that this technology offers to ensure security, which can be used in offline or online mode:
- Digitised handwritten signature (offline).
- Sending of security codes by SMS or call (offline and online)
- Facial biometrics or voice recognition biometrics (offline and online)
- Personal PIN (online)
Electronic IDentification is the only eTrust Service Provider in the market with a patented, end-to-end solution for automatic video identification and Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) without human intervention and with a process that takes seconds and it’s compliant with the highest eIDAS and AML standards.
6 advantages of a digitalised identity verification application for citizenship in public administrations
- Simplification of administrative procedures: making processes and information easier to access.
- Administrations’ interconnectivity: granting authorisation to make consults, reduction of time and paperwork.
- Increased efficiency: less time, less waiting, and lower processing costs.
- Greater scope of services: accessed from anywhere and at any time.
- Improved transaction security: systems such as VideoID and Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) prevent fraud by guaranteeing the user’s identity.
- Increased sustainability: reduction of paper usage and traveling needs.
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