tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/identity-verification-80871/articlesIdentity verification – The Conversation2023-12-10T22:09:09Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2194062023-12-10T22:09:09Z2023-12-10T22:09:09ZDigital ID will go mainstream across Australia in 2024. Here’s how it can work for everyone<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564405/original/file-20231207-23-kahv7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C2904%2C1634&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/woman-in-black-shirt-standing-in-front-of-black-metal-screen-Jlqm6p_nntk">Simon Lee / Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a world promising self-driving cars and artificial general intelligence, the prospect of a new form of digital identity verification can feel … less than exciting.</p>
<p>And yet digital identity is about to be unleashed in Australia and around the world. In 2024, many years before most of us experience the joy of commuting in our fully autonomous car, new forms of digital ID will profoundly change how we engage with government and business. For example, digital ID may remove the pain of handing over physical copies of your driver’s licence, passport and birth certificate when renewing your Working with Children Check or setting up a new bank account.</p>
<p>How can we gain the benefits of digital ID – convenience, efficiency, lower risk of cybercrime – while minimising the attendant risks, such as privacy leaks, data misuse, and reduced trust in government? </p>
<p>In <a href="https://jmi.org.au/news/facial-verification-tech-in-nsw-digital-identity-new-report-unveils-path-to-enhanced-governance-and-training">a new paper</a> released today by the Human Technology Institute, we propose legal and policy guardrails to improve user safeguards and build community trust for the rollout of digital ID in New South Wales. While the paper focuses on NSW, it contains ten principles to support the development of any safe, reliable and responsible digital identity system.</p>
<h2>Across Australia, governments are kickstarting digital identity initiatives</h2>
<p>Some forms of digital identification already operate in Australia at scale. For example, the <a href="https://www.idmatch.gov.au/">Document Verification Service</a> was introduced as early as 2009 to automate checking of important documents such as passports. </p>
<p>Last year this service was used <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitutional_Affairs/IDVerificationBills23/Report/Chapter_1_-_Introduction">more than 140 million times</a> by roughly 2,700 government and private sector organisations. A limited form of facial verification technology was used well over a million times.</p>
<p>A key problem, however, is that Australia has not had an effective legal framework to govern even the existing digital ID system. This is starting to change. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-national-digital-id-scheme-is-being-proposed-an-expert-weighs-the-pros-and-many-more-cons-214144">A national digital ID scheme is being proposed. An expert weighs the pros and (many more) cons</a>
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<p>In June this year, the federal government released a <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/criminal-justice/files/national-strategy-for-identity-resilience.pdf">national strategy for digital identity resilience</a>. In its final sittings for 2023, the Australian Parliament <a href="https://ministers.ag.gov.au/media-centre/delivering-strong-safeguards-identity-verification-services-07-12-2023">passed the Identity Verification Services Bill 2023</a>, which provides some important protections for privacy and other rights. </p>
<p>Also in December, the government proposed a second law, the <a href="https://ministers.ag.gov.au/media-centre/strengthening-australias-digital-id-system-30-11-2023">Digital ID Bill 2023</a>. This bill would provide rules for a major expansion of Australia’s system of digital identification.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding this recent flurry of activity in the federal government, NSW has long been Australia’s leading jurisdiction in this area. It announced its <a href="https://www.nsw.gov.au/customer-service/media-releases/nsw-government-unveils-future-of-digital-identity">Digital ID program</a> in April 2022 and has quietly worked to put in place the key elements of what could become a world-leading digital ID system, with strong community safeguards.</p>
<h2>What is a ‘digital identity’, and what are the risks?</h2>
<p>The technologies at the heart of digital ID are powerful and carry risks. </p>
<p>In particular, facial verification technology matches an individual’s face data against a recorded reference image. It may also incorporate “liveness detection”, which checks that the face to be verified belongs to a genuine individual requesting a service in real time (as opposed to a photograph, for example). </p>
<p>NSW’s digital identity initiative uses both these technologies.</p>
<p>Overall, digital identity should mean <em>less</em> of our personal information is collected and used by third parties. For example, when someone enters a pub and a bouncer asks for ID, the only information the bouncer needs to know is that the patron is over 18. The bouncer doesn’t need other personal information on their licence, such as their address or organ donor status. </p>
<p>Good design and regulation would ensure the digital ID service can verify someone’s age without disclosing other sensitive data.</p>
<p>On the other hand, these technologies use sensitive personal information and this brings risks when they are used to make decisions that affect people’s rights. Errors may result in an individual being denied an essential government service. </p>
<p>Because a digital ID system would by its nature collect sensitive personal information, it also poses risks of identity fraud or hacking of personal information.</p>
<h2>Making digital ID safe</h2>
<p>There must be robust safeguards in place to address these risks.</p>
<p>Accountable digital identity systems should be voluntary, not compulsory. They need to ensure citizens have options for choice and consent, and should be usable and accessible for everyone. </p>
<p>Digital ID also needs to be safe. It should protect the sensitive personal information of users and make sure this data is not used for other, unintended purposes like law enforcement.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-national-digital-id-is-here-but-the-governments-not-talking-about-it-130200">Australia's National Digital ID is here, but the government's not talking about it</a>
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<p>To achieve these aims, we recommend that NSW Digital ID be grounded in legislation that enshrines:</p>
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<li><p><strong>user protections</strong>, including providing for privacy and data security of all users</p></li>
<li><p><strong>performance standards</strong>, ensuring that digital identity performs to a high standard of accuracy and be fit for purpose, with public reporting by the responsible government agency or department on relevant independent benchmarking and technical standards compliance</p></li>
<li><p><strong>oversight and accountability</strong>, with both internal and external monitoring, and clear redress mechanisms</p></li>
<li><p><strong>interoperability</strong> with other government systems.</p></li>
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<p>These principles are not specific to NSW. They are relevant and transferable to other jurisdictions looking to develop digital identity systems. </p>
<p>Whether Australia’s digital identity transformation is a success depends on how digital identity systems are established in law and practice. It is crucial that robust governance mechanisms are in place to ensure digital identity systems are safe, secure and accountable. Only then will Australians embrace and trust the digital transformation that is afoot.</p>
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<p><em>HTI’s work to develop independent expert advice outlining a governance framework and training strategy for NSW Digital ID was funded by a <a href="https://jmi.org.au/2022-policy-challenge-grant-winners/">James Martin Institute Policy Challenge Grant</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219406/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edward Santow works for the UTS Human Technology Institute. The Institute has received a funding grant from the James Martin Institute for Public Policy to support the project mentioned in this article. Prof Santow also serves as an independent member of the NSW Government's AI Review Committee, which has provided some advice on the NSW Government's use of digital identification.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren Perry works for the UTS Human Technology Institute. The Institute has received a funding grant from the James Martin Institute for Public Policy to support the project mentioned in this article</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophie Farthing works for the UTS Human Technology Institute. The Institute has received a funding grant from the James Martin Institute for Public Policy to support the project mentioned in this article. </span></em></p>2024 will see a massive expansion in Australia’s digital ID system. Good tech and strong guardrails will make Australia a world leader in this important area.Edward Santow, Professor & Co-Director, Human Technology Institute, University of Technology SydneyLauren Perry, Responsible Technology Policy Specialist - Human Technology Institute, University of Technology SydneySophie Farthing, Head, Policy Lab, Human Technology Institute, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1705502021-10-26T06:01:31Z2021-10-26T06:01:31ZThe government wants to expand the ‘digital identity’ system that lets Australians access services. There are many potential pitfalls<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428176/original/file-20211025-15-1hznum5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C0%2C6000%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rodion Kutsaev/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The federal government has been asking the public for <a href="https://www.digitalidentity.gov.au/have-your-say/phase-3">feedback on proposed legislation</a> to create a “trusted digital identity” system. The aim is for Australians to use it to prove their identity when accessing public services.</p>
<p>I first found out about the draft Trusted Digital Identity Bill not through my research at the intersection of society and technology, but through my mother-in-law. She found out about it in private social media channels, and her local women’s group was seeking support to craft their feedback, which emphasises concern for privacy and civil liberties in Australia. </p>
<p>After asking around among major stakeholders, it seems this piece of legislation has largely slipped under the radar since it was unveiled on October 1.</p>
<p>But what will a national digital identity system actually involve, who will it serve, and if we need it, how should it be implemented?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-national-digital-id-is-here-but-the-governments-not-talking-about-it-130200">Australia's National Digital ID is here, but the government's not talking about it</a>
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<h2>What does ‘digital identity’ mean?</h2>
<p>The government’s proposed <a href="https://www.digitalidentity.gov.au/about-digital-identity">Digital Identity</a> system promises a “safe, secure and convenient way to prove who you are online every time you access government services”. In other words, it aims to streamline your experience by avoiding the need to repeatedly identify yourself when accessing a range of government services. </p>
<p>Currently, you can create a digital identity using a “myGovID” to access 80 government services. This allows you to link your data across services such as Medicare, Centrelink and the Australian Tax Office. The new legislation proposes an expansion of powers to outsource the process of identity verification to approved Australian businesses. Presumably, this could lead to an expansion of acceptance of the digital ID system so it can be used more widely than just to access government services.</p>
<p>This would be done by linking your MyGov account on the MyGovID smartphone app, and providing an existing identity document (such as a passport, driver’s licence or birth certificate), to an identity provider. Under the proposal, any Australian business can apply to join the “Trusted Digital Identity Framework” to become an identity accreditor. The legislation would establish an agency to oversee these accreditations, and to govern how data will be handled in the scheme. The technical standards of the proposed scheme have not yet been published.</p>
<p>But this goes against all the standard advice about not linking all of your personal information, such as tax history and medical history, as it can lead to mass analytics, behaviour profiling, targeted advertising, and more (as we saw in the Cambridge Analytica scandal). </p>
<p>The proposal also comes amid the ongoing “datafication” of the population, which has been turbocharged by the COVID pandemic. Digital rights advocacy groups have already <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-covidsafe-app-was-just-one-contact-tracing-option-these-alternatives-guarantee-more-privacy-137400">voiced alarm</a> at the mass collection, collation and storage of personal data, often on a mandatory basis, using hastily implemented platforms such as contact-tracing apps.</p>
<p>Without a careful and measured approach, the digital identity proposal risks repeating the same mistakes.</p>
<p>The government says the proposed digital identity system will be entirely voluntary, and that the system is not designed to replace identification documents such as your birth certificate, visa, driver’s licence or passport. </p>
<p>It also says the system will not be used to access or record COVID vaccinations, and that the information collected will not be used for purposes such as consumer profiling or marketing.</p>
<p>Of course, Australians who opt to use the system are being asked to put their trust in the government to share their data with “verified” identity providers. </p>
<p>Ironically enough, there are quite a few issues that still need to be resolved before Australians can place their trust in the government’s plan to issue them with a “trusted digital identity”.</p>
<h2>Potential pitfalls</h2>
<p>I have several concerns about the government’s digital identity legislation in its current form.</p>
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<li><p>It is opaque on details, particularly with regard to the proposed use of new technologies such as biometric matching (using biological characteristics to identity an individual) and automated decision-making. </p></li>
<li><p>It potentially creates a “honeypot” of personal data stored in a centralised database that would offer a tempting target for cyber criminals or hostile nations. The government has promised the data will be “private and secure and protected by strict security protocols”. But government databases have <a href="https://www.webberinsurance.com.au/data-breaches-list">suffered numerous previous hacks</a>, such as the “cybersecurity incident” last year that led to the Australian Defence Force’s <a href="https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2020/australian-defence-force-database-hacked.html">recruitment records</a> being offline for ten days.</p></li>
<li><p>It’s not clear how the trustworthiness of third-party identity verification providers who store these data will be verified and guaranteed, or what recourse would be available in the event of a breach.</p></li>
<li><p>There is a potential lack of accountability for third-party access, onselling, and monetisation of data – precisely the problem that has blighted our relationship with Big Tech over the past few years. </p></li>
<li><p>The establishment of a centralised “oversight authority” is an archaic approach that disempowers individuals from owning their personal information. </p></li>
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<p>Australians can’t simply disengage from digitisation. But rather than blithely hand over our data, we should think carefully and collectively about the long-term effects of creating national, centralised databases of sensitive personal information.</p>
<p>The digital infrastructure to own and control access to our own digital identity already exists. Blockchain communities have <a href="https://www.brightid.org/">built it</a>; it’s time we used it.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-covidsafe-app-was-just-one-contact-tracing-option-these-alternatives-guarantee-more-privacy-137400">The COVIDSafe app was just one contact tracing option. These alternatives guarantee more privacy</a>
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<h2>Hope for alternatives</h2>
<p>Senator Andrew Bragg last week tabled the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Financial_Technology_and_Regulatory_Technology/AusTechFinCentre/Final_report">final report</a> of the Senate Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre. It recommends Australia embrace technologies such as <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/about-us/national-blockchain-roadmap-steering-committee">blockchain</a> and decentralised computing, in a bid to become an international hub for financial technology. </p>
<p>Despite this, there is still no apparent appetite to use this technology to encrypt the data stored by our domestic public services. Contrast that with Estonia, an international leader in digitisation, which maintains an <a href="https://e-estonia.com/blockchain-healthcare-estonian-experience/">immutable blockchain-based record</a> of who in government has accessed medical health records.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-australia-can-learn-about-e-government-from-estonia-35091">What Australia can learn about e-government from Estonia</a>
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<p>Leaving aside the question of whether a digital identity system is even necessary or desirable, perhaps the biggest disappointment about the current legislation is the lack of creativity about data governance to determine how the system could be more safely implemented.</p>
<p>I’m not saying “don’t trust the government with your data”. What I am saying is that the digital identity data should be regarded as critical national infrastructure, and protected as such by giving people the ability to own their identity. </p>
<p>The broader context here is not one of legislation or technological architecture. It is a social question of collectively defining what a digital Australia should look like in the long term, and making it one that serves the public interest. Citizens should be able to own and govern their personal information with confidence, both now and into the future.</p>
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<p><em>The opportunity for individuals and organisations to <a href="https://www.digitalidentity.gov.au/have-your-say/phase-3">respond to the Digital Identity Bill</a> closes on October 27.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170550/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelsie Nabben receives funding from RMIT University as a PhD student. She is a Board member of industry association Blockchain Australia. </span></em></p>Without careful planning and implementation, the government risks making many of the same mistakes ushered in by the hasty ‘datafication’ of society, which has been turbocharged by the pandemic.Kelsie Nabben, Researcher / PhD Candidate, RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub / Digital Ethnography Research Centre, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1541302021-02-05T13:12:29Z2021-02-05T13:12:29ZTim Berners-Lee’s plan to save the internet: give us back control of our data<p>Releasing his creation for free 30 years ago, the inventor of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee, famously declared: “this is for everyone”. Today, his invention is used by billions – but it also hosts the <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net">authoritarian crackdowns</a> of antidemocratic governments, and supports the infrastructure of the most wealthy and powerful companies on Earth.</p>
<p>Now, in an effort to return the internet to the golden age that existed before its current incarnation as <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0267323108098947">Web 2.0</a> – characterised by invasive data harvesting by governments and corporations – Berners-Lee has devised a plan to save his invention. </p>
<p>This involves his brand of “data sovereignty” – which means giving users power over their data – and it means wrestling back control of the personal information we surrendered to big tech many years ago.</p>
<p>Berners-Lee’s latest intervention comes as increasing numbers of people regard the online world as a landscape dominated by a few tech giants, thriving on a system of “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/04/shoshana-zuboff-surveillance-capitalism-assault-human-automomy-digital-privacy">surveillance capitalism</a>” – which sees our personal data extracted and harvested by online giants before being used to target advertisements at us as we browse the web. </p>
<p>Courts in the US and the EU have filed cases against big tech as part of what’s been dubbed the “<a href="https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/01/20/the-techlash-against-amazon-facebook-and-google-and-what-they-can-do">techlash</a>” against their growing power. But Berners-Lee’s answer to big tech’s overreach is far simpler: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/10/technology/tim-berners-lee-privacy-internet.html">to give individuals the power to control their own data</a>.</p>
<h2>Net gains</h2>
<p>The idea of data sovereignty has its roots in <a href="https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/series/caepr/indigenous-data-sovereignty">the claims of the world’s indigenous people</a>, who have leveraged the concept to protect the intellectual property of their cultural heritage. </p>
<p>Applied to all web users, data sovereignty means giving individuals complete authority over their personal data. This includes the self-determination of which elements of our <a href="https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/tod-29-good-data/">personal data</a> we permit to be collected, and how we allow it to be analysed, stored, owned and used.</p>
<p>This would be in stark contrast to the current data practices that underpin big tech’s business models. The practice of “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2053951718820549">data extraction</a>”, for instance, refers to personal information that is taken from people surfing the web without their meaningful consent or fair compensation. This depends on a model in which your data is not regarded as being your property.</p>
<p>Scholars argue that data extraction, combined with “network effects”, has led to <a href="https://www.ippr.org/juncture-item/the-challenges-of-platform-capitalism">teach monopolies</a>. Network effects are seen when a platform becomes dominant, encouraging even more users join and use it. This allows the dominant platform more possibilities to extract data, which they use to produce better services. In turn, these better services attract even more users. This tends to amplify the power (and database size) of dominant firms at the expense of smaller ones.</p>
<p>This monopolisation tendency explains why the data extraction and ownership landscape is dominated by the so-called <a href="https://www.statista.com/topics/4213/google-apple-facebook-amazon-and-microsoft-gafam/">GAFAM</a> – Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft – in the US and the so-called <a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/23502/market-shares-baidu-alibaba-tencent/">BAT</a> – Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent – in China. In addition to companies, governments also have monopoly power over their citizens’ data.</p>
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<img alt="A smartphone screen showing the five 'GAFAM' branded apps" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382498/original/file-20210204-14-fufs5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382498/original/file-20210204-14-fufs5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382498/original/file-20210204-14-fufs5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382498/original/file-20210204-14-fufs5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382498/original/file-20210204-14-fufs5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382498/original/file-20210204-14-fufs5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382498/original/file-20210204-14-fufs5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The world’s largest tech companies are increasingly regarded as monopolistic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kumamoto-japan-may-29-2020-gafam-1783291358">Koshiro K/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>“<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2053951720982012">Data sovereignty</a>” has been proposed as a promising means of reversing this monopolising tendency. It’s an idea that’s been kicked about on the fringes of internet debates for some time, but its backing by Tim Berners-Lee will mean it garners much greater attention.</p>
<h2>Building data vaults</h2>
<p>Berners-Lee isn’t just backing data sovereignty: he’s building the tech to support it. He recently set up <a href="https://inrupt.com/">Inrupt</a>, a company with the express goal of moving towards the kind of world wide web that its inventor had originally envisioned. Inrupt plans to do that through a new system called “pods” – personal online data stores.</p>
<p>Pods work like personal data safes. By storing their data in a pod, individuals retain ownership and control of their own data, rather than transferring this to digital platforms. Under this system, companies can request access to an individual’s pod, offering certain services in return – but they cannot extract or sell that data onwards.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/web-3-0-the-decentralised-web-promises-to-make-the-internet-free-again-113139">Web 3.0: the decentralised web promises to make the internet free again</a>
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<p>Inrupt has built these pods as part of its <a href="https://inrupt.com/solid">Solid</a> project, which has followed the form of a Silicon Valley startup – though with the express objective of making pods accessible for all. All websites or apps a user with a pod visits will require authentication by Solid before being allowed to request an individual’s personal data. If pods are like safes, Solid acts like the bank in which the safe is stored.</p>
<p>One of the criticisms of the idea of pods is that it approaches data as a commodity. The concept of “<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2012/09/30/data-markets-the-emerging-data-economy/">data markets</a>” has been mooted, for instance, as a system that enables companies to make micro-payments in exchange for our data. The fundamental flaw of such a system is that data is of little value when it is bought and sold on its own: the value of data only emerges from its aggregation and analysis, accrued via network effects.</p>
<h2>Common good</h2>
<p>An alternative to the commodification of data could lie in categorising data as “commons”. The idea of the commons was first popularised by the work of Nobel Prize-winning political economist Elinor Ostrom. </p>
<p>A commons approach to data would regard it as owned not by individuals or by companies, but as something that’s owned by society. <a href="https://decodeproject.eu/blog/towards-data-commons">Data as commons</a> is an emerging idea which could unlock the value of data as a public good, keeping ownership in the hands of the community. </p>
<p>Tim Berners-Lee’s intervention in debates about the destiny of the internet is a welcome development. Governments and communities are coming to realise that big tech’s data-driven digital dominance is unhealthy for society. Pods represent one answer among many to the question of how we should respond.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pieter Verdegem does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The web’s inventor believes the liberation of our data will help redistribute power on the internet.Pieter Verdegem, Senior Lecturer, School of Media and Communication, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1500892020-11-16T18:56:08Z2020-11-16T18:56:08ZAre you among Australia’s best facial super-recognisers? Take our test to find out<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369487/original/file-20201116-21-1483hyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C124%2C3902%2C2836&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>At just 11 years old, Nicole couldn’t understand why her classmates were struggling. The competition was straightforward: recognise teachers at the primary school from their baby photos. Most students struggled to recognise more than a few faces. Nicole easily named all 20 faces correctly.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until completing our free, online test — the UNSW Face Test — that she finally understood why she could do what her classmates couldn’t. Her results were clear: Nicole is one of the rare individuals who can call themselves a “super-recogniser”.</p>
<p>Most of us easily recognise the faces of people we know — our family, friends and colleagues — but recognising less familiar people can be surprisingly challenging. For instance, you might not notice the cashier you smiled at in the supermarket takes the same daily bus route as you. </p>
<p>That is, unless you’re a super-recogniser. In our study, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0241747">published today</a> in PLOS One, we release the results of the first 25,000 people to complete the UNSW Face Test. It’s currently the most challenging test available for identifying super-recognisers. You can take it <a href="http://www.unswfacetest.com/">here</a>.</p>
<h2>What is a super-recogniser?</h2>
<p>A super-recogniser is someone who is exceptionally gifted at facial recognition. Super-recognisers remember faces much more accurately than the average person and often after many years, or very short encounters.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/107/11/5238">Research suggests super-recognition is genetic</a>, meaning these skills are coded in our DNA. However, researchers have yet to find any other abilities shared by super-recognisers. This is because facial recognition ability is independent from <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-15679-001">intelligence</a>, <a href="https://cognitiveresearchjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41235-018-0112-9">personality</a> and <a href="https://cognitiveresearchjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41235-018-0112-9">other cognitive and perceptual skills</a>. </p>
<h2>Searching for the Einstein of facial recognition</h2>
<p>Currently, the only way to identify a super-recogniser is by giving them facial recognition tests. There is no Olympic-level contest or world record for this. If there were, however, the UNSW Face Test could be the arena in which super-recognisers compete. </p>
<p>It’s the first online test designed to really challenge super-recognisers. It takes around 20 minutes to complete and features images of 80 different people. Our test is difficult because it requires people to correctly identify a face despite substantial changes in appearance from one encounter to the next. </p>
<p>This could include differences in the pictured person’s age, pose, lighting and expression. This is why the average person scores around 60%, which is lower than the average in other facial recognition tests. </p>
<p>Super-recognisers will typically score 70% or higher. And while this is a good score, it’s certainly far from perfect. In other tests it’s not uncommon for super-recognisers to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acp.3608">score perfectly</a>. But this has yet to be achieved with the UNSW Face Test. </p>
<p>Now with more than 31,000 test results available, the highest anyone has scored is 97%, and only 11 people have scored 90% or higher.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/super-recognisers-accurately-pick-out-a-face-in-a-crowd-but-can-this-skill-be-taught-112003">Super-recognisers accurately pick out a face in a crowd – but can this skill be taught?</a>
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<p>We’ve learned from analysing our test results that, although all super-recognisers are exceptional at facial recognition, some are better than others. This leaves room at the top for a better kind of super-recogniser to emerge: a super-<em>duper</em>-recogniser — the highest achievers among an already extraordinary group.</p>
<p>With more people completing the test, we hope to find the Einstein of facial recognition.</p>
<h2>Why are super-recognisers important?</h2>
<p>Many important tasks rely on recognising or matching images of unfamiliar faces. Examples include matching a traveller to their passport, or a CCTV image to a police mugshot. Despite advancements, facial recognition technology is <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-trouble-with-facial-recognition-technology-in-the-real-world-69685">often unable to execute</a> such tasks with complete accuracy.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369526/original/file-20201116-21-15v0x11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369526/original/file-20201116-21-15v0x11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369526/original/file-20201116-21-15v0x11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369526/original/file-20201116-21-15v0x11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369526/original/file-20201116-21-15v0x11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369526/original/file-20201116-21-15v0x11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369526/original/file-20201116-21-15v0x11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369526/original/file-20201116-21-15v0x11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Passport officers have to decide if the person in front of them is the same as the person pictured on an identity document.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Through collaborations with the Australian Passport Office, we now know experience and <a href="https://theconversation.com/super-recognisers-accurately-pick-out-a-face-in-a-crowd-but-can-this-skill-be-taught-112003">training</a> alone may not reduce error rates in passport officers tasked with detecting fraudulent passport applications.</p>
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<p>Instead, employing and assigning super-recognisers to such roles that would benefit from their skills is a promising solution. </p>
<p>In Australia, many police forces and government agencies, including <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2021695261472644">Queensland Police</a> and the <a href="https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/passport-officers-using-face-recognition-technology-better-detecting-fraud#:%7E:text=Passport%20officers%20using%20face%20recognition%20technology%20better%20at%20detecting%20fraud,-Twitter%20Facebook%20LinkedIn&text=Face%2Dmatching%20experts%20using%20automatic,detecting%20fraud%2C%20new%20research%20shows.">Australian Passport Office</a>, are now selecting people for facial recognition roles on the basis of their facial recognition ability. In the UK, London’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150611-the-superpower-police-now-use-to-tackle-crime">Metropolitan Police</a> has done the same.</p>
<h2>Advancing knowledge on cognitive processes</h2>
<p>Uncovering what makes super-recognisers different to the average person is also of fundamental scientific interest. </p>
<p>Understanding why there’s so much variation in people’s ability to recognise faces could shed light on the cognitive processes and mechanisms that let certain people to become experts in visual tasks more generally. Currently, we know very little about these factors. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/17470218.2016.1161059">Some research</a> has suggested super-recognisers may process faces more “holistically” than other people, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010945216301186">combining individual facial features</a> into an overall picture. But very few studies have aimed to understand the underlying causes for this, so current knowledge is still evolving. </p>
<p>Our long-term research aim is to understand the underlying cognitive and perceptual processes that give rise to super-recognisers’ impressive abilities. But first, we have to find them. So if you think you might be one, take the <a href="http://www.unswfacetest.com/">UNSW Face Test</a> to help us understand your superpowers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150089/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David White receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Australian Passport Office. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Towler and James Dunn do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Psychologists are hoping a new, extra-difficult facial recognition test will help unearth more of Australia’s top performers in facial recognition — known as ‘super-recognisers’.James Dunn, Postdoctoral Research Associate, UNSW SydneyAlice Towler, Post-doctoral Research Fellow, UNSW SydneyDavid White, Scientia Fellow, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1284142020-01-10T16:37:51Z2020-01-10T16:37:51ZFacial recognition: research reveals new abilities of ‘super-recognisers’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309321/original/file-20200109-80122-13o2f3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When it comes to faces, most of us are typical-recognisers, with just a small percentage classed as super-recognisers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/machine-learning-systems-technology-accurate-facial-1297552141">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Do you never forget a face? Are you one of those people who can spot the same nameless extras across different TV programmes and adverts? Are you the family member always called on to identify or match faces in old photographs? If so, you may be a “super-recogniser” – the term science uses to describe people with an exceptional ability to recognise faces.</p>
<p>Over the past decade, psychologists have <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41235-018-0112-9">established</a> that our ability to recognise faces varies a lot – much like the ability to sing, for instance. While a small proportion of the population simply can’t hold a note at all, and most are content to confine their very average efforts to the shower, at the top end there are outstanding singers, such as Adele.</p>
<p>Researchers believe the same applies to facial-recognition ability. A small proportion of people struggle to recognise friends and family (a condition known as <a href="https://theconversation.com/always-forget-a-face-so-does-brad-pitt-dont-just-blame-your-memory-50334">prosopagnosia</a>), most people are “typical recognisers”, and at the top there is a small number of people who excel at recognising faces – super-recognisers. </p>
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<h2>Face off</h2>
<p>Since 2009, researchers have been assessing super-recognisers and their abilities. These people are usually classed as such if they reach a threshold score on the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/PBR.16.2.252">Cambridge face memory test</a>. The test asks participants to learn a series of faces and then recognise them from different photographs. More recently, though, the focus has shifted to ensuring that super-recognisers are defined by consistently high scores across a range of face tests, including matching pairs of unfamiliar faces – a task border-control officers perform when matching passport photos to real faces. </p>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acp.3260%20;%20https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0150036">Research</a> shows three main things. One, that super-recognisers outperform most people at learning new faces and then recognising them from headshots. Two, they are better at deciding whether two photos of unfamiliar people show the same person or two different people. And three, that the ability appears to be have a genetic basis and is limited to faces.</p>
<p>The emergence of super-recognisers and the growing body of evidence that has identified their skills has enabled border-control agencies and police to recruit people who excel at facial-identity verification.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0211037">research</a> has shown that in most circumstances training and experience don’t make people better at recognising faces, recruiting people who excel at this could significantly increase fraud detection rates at border control, where a traveller’s face doesn’t match their passport photo, for example. It could also decrease false conviction rates from evidence that is based on a suspect’s face being incorrectly matched to CCTV footage.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309928/original/file-20200114-151876-1tb6fml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309928/original/file-20200114-151876-1tb6fml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309928/original/file-20200114-151876-1tb6fml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309928/original/file-20200114-151876-1tb6fml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309928/original/file-20200114-151876-1tb6fml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309928/original/file-20200114-151876-1tb6fml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309928/original/file-20200114-151876-1tb6fml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">London’s Met Police has a crack unit of super-recogniser officers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-30th-october-2011-two-152375870">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>While not all super-recognisers perform perfectly all of the time or across all tests, one of the best solutions would be to pair the best among them with our best computer <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/115/24/6171.short">face-recognition algorithms</a> to try and establish a level of best performance.</p>
<p>Several agencies in the UK, including London’s Metropolitan Police, have established dedicated super-recogniser units to assist in facial identification tasks. But, until now, a question remained as to whether super-recognisers would still show enhanced performance for faces that were outside their own ethnic group.</p>
<p>Most super-recogniser tests have used Caucasian (white) faces, and most super-recognisers who have been tested have been white. Within psychological science, it is well established that recognising faces from another ethnic group is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000169181730481X">significantly harder</a> than recognising faces from your own ethnic group.</p>
<p>Given that border control and police officers are likely to encounter people from a large range of ethnic groups, it is important to assess whether super-recogniser ability also applies to faces from other ethnicities.</p>
<h2>New research</h2>
<p>This question was tested in our <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/acp.3608">recent study</a>, where a group of white super-recognisers outperformed a white control group of typical-recognisers when asked to match pairs of Egyptian faces. The study showed that while super-recognisers showed superior performance to typical-recognisers, there was still a “cost” to their accuracy in relation to the white-face test.</p>
<p>This lends support to the idea that super-recognisers are people performing at the top end of the facial recognition scale, rather than doing something completely different to the average person. This finding shows that deploying super-recognisers at border control or in policing should still provide a benefit, even when they are tasked with reviewing faces outside their ethnic group. </p>
<p>Despite the super-recognisers outperforming the control group, they were not as good at matching Egyptian faces as they were at matching white faces. <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-64938-001">Recent research</a> from the University of Bournemouth shows that while white super-recognisers outperform the white control-group members, they do not match native observers’ levels of accuracy.</p>
<p>So white super-recognisers will outperform white control-group members when asked to match Egyptian or Asian faces, for example, but native Egyptian or Asian observers will still outperform the white super-recognisers, meaning agencies seeking to recruit super-recognisers will see a performance boost. But if they are assessing a particular ethnic group, they will need to seek the help of native observers as well. </p>
<p>Our work builds on this previous research, and the two combined show that the super-recogniser ability does extend to faces of other ethnicities. It provides further evidence to support the selection of super-recognisers for roles in which correctly identifying faces is critical.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128414/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ahmed Megreya receives previous funding from Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Through the University of Greenwich, Josh Davis consults for Super-Recognisers International and Yoti on the use of super-recognisers in their businesses. He has received university administered research and enterprise funding from the EC, Super-Recognisers International, Yoti, European and UK police forces and government agencies, Singapore government agencies, and Australian police forces. He does not receive any direct funding personally from these organisations. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David James Robertson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>“Super-recognisers” who can identify a range of ethnicities could help increase fraud detection rates at passport control and decrease false conviction rates that have relied on CCTV.David James Robertson, Lecturer, University of Strathclyde Ahmed Megreya, Professor & Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Studies, Qatar UniversityJosh P Davis, Reader, Applied Psychology, University of GreenwichLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.