Smartcard: The Australian iPod
Smartcard: The Australian iPod
November 13, 2006: The Federal Government’s proposed human services smartcard will offer the option of storing personal information, a function Human Services Minister Joe Hockey compares to a ‘mini iPod.’
Hockey says one-third of storage space on the card is open to users to store personal information. He suggested medical requirement, emergency contact details and ever shopping lists be personally stored on the card by individuals.
“We are creating a customer controlled area in the chip where individuals can store the information they want,” said Hockey at the National Press Club in Canberra last week. “In simple terms it makes the access card similar to a mini-iPod, where you can download minimum amounts of information onto the microchip and carry it around in your wallet or purse,”
The Human Services Minister addressed the Press Club after receiving a report and recommendations from Professor Fels, head of the Federal Government’s Access Card Consumer and Privacy Taskforce, who conducting public research in to the proposal.
“We’re using two-thirds of the capacity on the chip. The other one-third is in the hands of the individual.”
Hockey says Australians should get used to smart card technology as it will be hard to escape over the next few years. “It is a technology that banks are applying to credit and debit cards, and that state governments are applying to drivers’ licences and transport services,” he says. “And over time, it is technology that wil be adopted by most private sector service providers.”
As a means to overcome privacy concerns, Hockey stresses the idea that the cardholder will be the owner of the card as opposed to the Federal Government. Comparing the card to other cards found in a wallet such as a credit card, transport card or gym membership that are all the property of the issuer, Hockey says the Access Card will truly be YOUR CARD. “This means that you don’t have to carry your card in your purse if you’d prefer to leave it at home,” he says. “This means that we are proposing legislation that no person – including the policy or the banks – will be able to demand the Access Card as the only allowable form of identification.”
It is with this ‘Your Card’ initiative that the government is creating a ‘Customer Controlled’ element to the chip with holders able to customise the additional storage space provided.
With the current Medicare card “cheap and easy to copy,” Hockey says it is clear the current system of health and welfare entitlements cards is in desperate need of a makeover. Over $100 billion in health and welfare payments is handed out by the Department of Human Services every year. “When dealing with this amount of money it is absolutely crucial that we take fraud seriously,” says Hockey.
According to Hockey, a key benefit of the Access Card is the ability to cut down on administrative processing involved in identity management – an area that currently sees document management getting out of control at key agencies including Medicare and Centrelink. He pointed to the 275 kilometres of files at Centrelink that include photocopies of birth certificates, licences and utility statements. “We collect, and almost never reuse, this information,” he says “Medicare has to measure its records in a similar way. They have more than three square kilometres of storage space for forms with signatures.”
While the government accepted most recommendations provided by Professor Fels, it has decided to go against a recommendation of removing proposed signatures from the card. “This will make it easier to cross check signatures on the 50 million forms that are completed every year at Centrelink, Medicare and other Government offices,” said Hockey.
The government has commenced work on the $1.1 billion consolidation of 17 existing heath and social welfare cards to create the single ‘Access Card.’ With the plans to commence the roll-out more than 16.7 Access Cards from early 2008, Hockey says 32,000 of those will be issues between 2008 and 2010.