[LINK] myGovID App

[Chris Maltby]

The mygovid app is a shocker. I never succeeded in getting my mother
validated as it refused to accept her birth certificate because of a bug
in the matching code (apparently) and she had no drivers licence or
passport. This prevented her from submitting PAYG returns. The fix came
about a month after she had died, so we were never able to confirm that
it worked. The ATO staff were unfailingly helpful and equally frustrated
that the thing was so buggy.

One big problem was that once you had confirmed a document it linked the
confirmation permanently to the email address you used for the
validation. If you accidentally (or unwittingly) used a different email
address you could end up with some of your documents unavailable to
complete sufficient identity proof. I heard of a tax accountant who was
unable to access her clients' businesses for a number of months because
she had set up two mygovids with different emails and split her
documents between them.

The entry of basic data is stupidly over-complicated - it's as if they
believe that the average user is trying to fake their identity. For
example, each document validation requires that you enter your date of
birth - but it starts with today's date and you have to scroll backward
to the correct date. You have already provided the date in the initial
registration and they could assume that that's a very likely input for
the identity document too. Only if your document has a different date
should you need to adjust the data for confirmation. It take a minute or
more to scroll back to 1925 - I can't remember how many times I had to
do it for my mother.

The management problem is that the ATO went live with mygovid even
though they knew is was broken and that lots of people who had been
happily using auskey would be locked out with no way to lodge their
essential documents. We ended up submitting yearly PAYG tax forms on
paper when we had previously been able to submit them with auskey - and
then they managed to get them confused causing delays for people trying
to submit their tax returns online (no pay summary available).

The government's "Document Verification Services" (used by mygovid) can
also be used by private companies to sell identity matching services to
banks, credit agencies and others. Equifax is one of the entities which
sells access to government identity information - they were hacked in
2017 in the US and 145 million consumers' personal data was stolen...

Chris

On 2021-05-25 6:14 pm, sylvano wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> Just a follow up on that digital identity credential innovation from
> our federal government & ATO, myGovID, which I didn't really attend to
> closely at it's appearance last year... 
>
> As they tout to us, the myGovID is "...your Digital Identity and makes
> it easier to prove who you are online - it's like the 100-point ID
> check but on your smart device. Use your myGovID to log in to
> participating government online services." 
>
> https://www.mygovid.gov.au/
>
>
> I was checking out the smartphone app on offer and I see that it
> receives equally poor reviews at both major providers:
>
> the Apple store:
> https://apps.apple.com/au/app/mygovid/id1397699449
>
> the Google store:
> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.gov.ato.mygovid.droid
>
> Reading the reviews and government representative responses at the
> Google store induce anxiety and don't inspire confidence.
>
> e.g. "It is the worst app ever. I am still trying to setup my account.
> This is my 5th time. I have had to uninstall and install the app every
> time it won't verify my identity. A driver's License is the most basic
> form of ID and it can't verify my driver's license. I have lived in
> Queensland for over 8 years! It is extremely frustrating!"
>
> I also note the Wikipedia entry raises points of concern...
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyGovID
>
> "Common issues raised in customer reviews are that the app has poor
> security (it is possible to register an account using commonly
> available information such as a drivers licence number, and it is
> possible to register multiple accounts for the same individual), the
> app refuses to recognise government-issued ID, does not permit changing
> most details, and has poor user interface / functionality."
>
>
> cheers
> Sylvano
> sylvano at gnomon.com.au
>
>
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