Consumers in digital markets will benefit from a trusted, accessible and robust national Digital ID system. By providing consumers with an option to authenticate their identity in a secure and convenient Digital ID system, consumers can be better protected from threats of scams, identity theft, and data misuse, and will increase their trust in online products and services. 

However, a Digital ID system must be implemented with appropriate safeguards. Although Digital ID can neutralise a number of risks to consumer data, inadequate regulation and poor implementation can create new risks of exclusion and discrimination, data monetisation, and catastrophic data breaches. To achieve these goals, CHOICE recommends the Federal Government:

1. establish a national Digital ID system to protect consumers;
2. empower the ACCC as the interim Digital ID Regulator
3. prioritise consumer protections and obligations on participating businesses in standards set in the Accreditation Rules
4. require and adequately resource consumer consultation in future developments of accreditation and data standards
5. provide consumers alternative means to authenticate their identity
6. limit exemptions to interoperability and strengthen the Digital ID Regulator's ability to refuse exemptions
7. provide resourcing for economy-wide consumer education and advocacy on the use of Digital ID trust marks
8. consider the future use of different trust marks for accreditation-only entities and entities also participating in AGDIS
9. prohibit Digital ID providers from charging consumers a fee to create or deactivate a Digital ID and prohibit relying parties from passing on fees to consumers
10. review proposed penalties for breaches of the Digital ID Bill to align with consumer expectations and other privacy related regulatory regimes
11. introduce statutory rights to consumer redress, including appropriate and accessible dispute resolution process;
12. implement reforms to the Privacy Act such as

a. personal redress through a statutory tort for invasion of privacy and a direct right of action

b. introducing a fair and reasonable use test, and

c. stricter controls on overseas data flows; and

13. introduce an unfair trading prohibition in the Australian Consumer Law.

Download submission (PDF)

• Submission to the Department of Finance on the Digital ID Bill and Digital ID Rules

Related content

• Op-ed: Why we need to enforce existing laws against 'data enrichment'
• Submission to the ACCC on the Digital Platform Services Inquiry consultation on data brokers
• Data laws and regulation

Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.