The Canadian territory of Yukon is launching a new identity management platform in a modernisation effort to reduce secure login methods to government sites, which can accumulate across a variety of public services.
The reasons for accessing government sites can vary from renewing vehicle registration, paying property taxes or claiming benefits. The MyYukon account will only require one secure password and login but it will be the decision of individual departments whether to adopt the digital identity system which will collect basic personal information from users for example name, address, phone number and email address.
When users access digital services the first time they will be prompted to set up a MyYukon account however thereafter one login can be used to validate future authentication attempts.
The system is not new and continues to be supplemented by in-person services, but the government has slowly worked on levelling up digital transformation of its services to ensure robust user protections using digital identity.
Joni Brennan, President of the Digital ID and Authentication Council of Canada, says the government risks more by not updating ID protections for government public-facing systems, which holds databases of public records.
Assessments to determine privacy of the system are ongoing. In August 2022, the government set out its intended Digital Ambition 2022 and preempted concerns about privacy by implementing a public consultation on a framework for digital identity. One of the key learning outcomes of the feedback emphasised the need for government to create fast, straightforward ways of authenticating system use.
The Ambition proposed “a solid foundation for the ever-evolving digital transformation of government”, said Mona Fortier, President of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, and would serve as “an important tool to support the focus shared across ministers and departments to identify and implement better ways to ensure Canadians receive high quality, accessible, and efficient government services”.
