[vertis]

It's long past time for countries to embrace the digital id the way Estonia (and a few others) have.

For comparison, visit https://www.telia.ee/en and you're prompted for your smart card or associated Smart ID (which is mobile app you can bootstrap from your smart card).

No more need to do a 100 point check (and then hold that information indefinitely), it's been done.

Even if you don't like the Estonian system it's high time to get serious about digital identity and stop pretending that knowing your DoB etc (or social security number in US) is a secure mechanism of proving identity.

Aside: Highly recommend Estonia's e-residency program. Great place to run a company. Future focused.

[bogantech]

I'm an Australian living in Sweden who loves BankID but I don't trust the Aus Govt to provide a similar service.

[tallytarik]

I hear this often, and as an Aussie techie it's such a shame. Whether or not it's true, it almost certainly means we'll never try. How do we get past this?

[PebblesHD]

Personally, it would take strong legislation preventing any variation of law enforcement having any access to any of the data, even that of convicted criminals, to make me comfortable to provide mine into the system. Perhaps even constitutional change prohibiting it. Currently, home affairs could feasibly access any data in just about anything the government does with barely a sign-off which I’m not comfortable with.

Our laws protecting us from the government are way too weak for systems like this to take off. Also we keep hiring contractors who do a fairly poor job building the things in the first place.

[endgame]

> Our laws protecting us from the government are way too weak for systems like this to take off.

Indeed. Remember when the police got into the contact tracing apps?

[bogantech]

I mean the incompetence is only a tiny part of why I feel this way - with how much they improperly use the data they already have on us I'd rather not let them record every login I perform etc.

[sumedh]

> Whether or not it's true,

Australia could not even design a proper national broadband network.