Walking Together

New Zealand lacks consistently applied standards and processes for sharing, storing and using personal and organisational information in a digital environment. As a result, systems and services have been developed in an unstructured and inconsistent manner that creates inefficiencies, increases security and privacy risks and hinders interoperability.

This is undermining consumer trust and confidence in digital identity1 services at a time when more and more transactions are taking place online, and the ability to share information digitally to assert one’s information is becoming increasingly vital to daily life and a key foundation for the economy. A governance and compliance regime is required to ensure that those who are providing digital identity services consistently meet legislation and standards for using, storing and sharing personal and organisational information. This will imbue the ecosystem with consistency and trust, encourage uptake, enable the flow of information, improve user experience, reduce identity theft, and position the digital identity ecosystem to realise the significant social and economic benefits digital identity services can provide - Page 17