Government Services Could Go Onto Facebook

Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter could be used to access government services under the ID assurance scheme currently being prepared by the government, the Cabinet Office has said.

The programme, designed in part to replace the scrapped ID cards plan, is intended to allow users to validate their identity for the purpose of receiving government services online using ID information held with third parties, such as financial institutions.

Social networks included

The scheme may also be extended social networks, meaning users could register to receive certain government services using their social networking ID, a Cabinet Office spokeswoman has said.

“Social networks could possibly be involved with the system,” the spokeswoman told The Register.

A social network ID would probably only give access to relatively low-security functions, such as commenting on web pages, according to a Telegraph report, citing an unnamed source close to the project.

For high-security services like financial transactions, a more secure form of identification, such as one derived from a financial institution, would be required, the source said.

In May, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude told Parliament that the ID assurance programme would give users the ability to select from a range of third-party ID providers to receive government services.

“People will be able to use the service of their choice to prove identity when accessing any public services,” he said at the time.

‘Range of suppliers’

The idea is to “create a market of accredited identity assurance services delivered by a range of private sector and mutualised suppliers”, Maude said.

ID assurance is initially set to be used with projects such as the Department for Work and Pension’s universal credits, NHS HealthSpace, HMRC’s one click programmes and the Skills Funding Agency.

A prototype of the system is set to appear in October and the government wants to implement it by August of 2012.

Critics of the government’s previous ID cards scheme have shown scepticism so far, noting that the government hasn’t yet provided details on exactly how ID assurance would work and how privacy would be protected.