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One of the great criticisms of the digital age is that we have rushed headlong into embracing technology but we have not really thought about how to apply the brake if things get out of hand.
It's an issue confronting governments and organisations, and was highlighted in a recent Four Corners episode "Cyber War" on the ABC.
Speaking on the program, Katie Moussouris, chief policy officer and cyber security expert at US company HackerOne, said: "The internet was never designed to actually be secure so we're fighting an almost untenable problem space. We're realising that we've created so much technology, we've created technology faster than we have the ability to secure it as human beings."
This inability to secure data was highlighted in Accenture's "The State of Cybersecurity and Digital Trust 2016" report released in June. Most organisations interviewed suggested security breaches were on the rise and were not going to go away. It's an alarming admission considering trust in data security is really the cornerstone of the digital economy.
The theme of trust was also highlighted by Boston Consulting Group, which say it's the "hidden landmine in big data" as organisations do not hold the same values as consumers do when it comes to privacy issues. Put simply: consumers look beyond regulations and the small print in their terms and conditions, and look at what they perceive as right and wrong.
Yet what many consumers do not realise is once we have solved the problem of creating a secure digital identity, many of the issues associated with trust should disappear. Part of the reason we do not particularly trust the idea of creating a single digital identity is we have managed to create so many versions of ourselves online. We have numerous usernames and passwords across numerous online relationships ranging from banking to social media, online shopping portals and more. In many ways we have made ourselves less secure.
Single digital identity
Telstra director of home and premium services John Chambers says one simple reason why creating a single digital identity will be a boon to customers is because we are getting worse at maintaining our own security.
"It's because it can be hard to maintain identity and maintain different passwords. Everything is hard, so behaviour is getting worse, people are using social identities to start to do financial transactions, we're getting into some territory that's only increasing their risks," he said at the recent Digital Identity roundtable co-hosted by The Australian Financial Review and Australia Post.
Cameron Gough general manager at Australia Post's digital delivery centre, says consumers should be able to release only the information relevant to a particular transaction – whether it be to a call centre or in the manner of physically confirming who you say you are.
"It goes beyond digital interactions, it could go multi-channel," Gough says.
Boston Consulting Group principal Rebecca Russell says one of the obvious advantages of creating digital identities will be felt in the health sector. Australia still does not have proper e-health records despite the launch of the MyHealth record site back in 2012. In fact, it has been plagued with issues, a low take-up level from consumers and many doctors refusing to upload patient information.
Russell says once we have established secure identities, consumers will feel more comfortable in sharing their health records with a particular health provider.
"It can lead to better patient outcomes in the service provided. It can lead to better government services outcomes in the instances of paying benefits to citizens as well.
"Going further, it can make a student's life easier as they are getting their Myki card or Opal card. My grandmother can get into the zoo at the discount rate with her senior citizen's card in a more seamless way. It allows all of those everyday interactions such as going to the zoo or the movies or catching the train easier as well as applying for a bank account or dealing with some complex sharing of very private information about your health much more seamless.
"All of those things can be enabled and be at the control of the consumer as to how that works," Russell says.
Capacity to link
Australian Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim says the crucial point is the amount of control the consumers have over their data.
He says if an identity is allied to our everyday activities, there is the capacity to link.
"You have to ask: how do you maintain your identity and ensure that identity doesn't become a single database of your activities of everywhere you go during the day," he says.
Chambers acknowledges there are concerns but says if we get it right it can help the whole economy, especially small businesses, which are often a target for fraud.
"It should help them overcome small frictions and make business easier to do," he says.
The head of agency services and RealMe at Kiwibank, Mandy Smith, says secure digital identities will have to work in the reverse as well.
"We talk a lot about consumers verifying their identity to organisations but the other challenge in the design of the system is actually how do organisations authenticate themselves to the individual to get away from the increasing number of scams.
"With the increase in scams such as the recent Australian Tax Office hoax calls, people now often don't trust a phone call or an email and it's starting to hinder your ability to actually serve customers, so frameworks that will support trust both ways are going to become increasingly important," she says.
Complex relationships
Going further, the executive general manager of Australia Post's Trusted eCommerce Solutions division, Andrew Walduck, says how we take into account carers or guardians of people in the provision of government or financial services will also need to be looked at.
"These can be rather complex relationships especially when you start to look at welfare, aged care and childcare," he says.
Yet before we get to the point of taking into account the levels of complexity involved, David Lacey from digital identity support service iDcare says the community has to be made more aware of what creating a digital identity actually entails.
He says many Australians do not understand the issue.
"We have to be careful that it doesn't become a Y2K, that the community comes with us on this journey in an educated way.
"We run about 30 community events a year, right across the country. We can list the top five questions asked by community members and among those will be: 'Is internet banking safe?' We're still having that conversation in 2016.
"So don't underestimate the size of the [education] mountain that we have to climb."