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Explainer
- Canada: Enabling Self-Sovereign Identity Tim Bouma
The adoption of the self-sovereign identity model within the Canadian public sector is still being realized in 2020. It is too early to tell how it will change the technological infrastructure or the institutional infrastructure of Canadian public services.
It would be an understatement if I said that I was disappointed with the Ontario 2022 election results, and I’m not talking about the winning party – I’m talking about the turnout. All to say, it’s discouraging to see such low participation. [...] I’m not an expert on the election process, and this is just my opinion. I’ve been lazy in past elections, and I’d be lying if I said I’ve voted in every one. As a citizen, I believe ease and accessibility have a lot to do with it.
Quebec
The Lab is Canada’s first independent and neutral organization to promote the compliance of and interoperability between digital ID solutions across public and private sectors, bridging a crucial gap in the advancement of Canada’s digital ecosystem.
Saskatchewan
In a search that started in October 2021, the province was considering vendors to potentially initiate digital ID, meant to replace the need for physical ID cards. According to RFP documents, the selected vendor would have worked with SGI for facial verification, but final details on accessing the photo database weren’t finalized.
BCGov
- John Jordan AMA - ToIP, BC Gov, Spinal Cord Injuries by John Jordan
John shared about his journey and ongoing rehab, and then moved on to what’s up with BCGov these days and looking ahead with the same.
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BC Digital Trust BCGov
Nice resources page from BCGov
- OrgBook BC A live service providing organization-related Verifiable Credentials in BC, Canada
- BC Wallet - Technology Overview
- Verifiable Credentials for People Tools and services for issuing and verifying Verifiable Credentials
- Safe Entry BC Demo A prototype of a contactless way to manage access to a facility, using Verifiable Credentials
- Conference Book Demo A demo showing the use of Verifiable Credentials for attending a conference
- Chat Server Demo A demo giving access to a chat service using Verifiable Credentials
Canada is beginning to develop their own version of a “Tell Us Once” Digital Identity policy, an approach pioneered in Europe by the likes of Estonia.
This is a policy where having provided your data to one government agency, you’ll never be asked for it again from another, defined explicitly through legislation.
Alberta
- Participate in Alberta's First Verifiable Digital Credentials Pilot ATB Ventures and Govt Alberta
As a part of the pilot, you will add your MyAlberta Digital ID as a verifiable credential to your mobile digital wallet (on your smartphone) and use this digital credential to open an ATB Pay As You Go Account - Digital Credential account with ATB Financial.
The proof of concept stage is where the Canadian government tests digital credentials use cases in cooperation with regulators and organizations to advance the adoption and maturity of digital credentials technology. The National Digital Trust Service aims to enable Canadians and businesses to issue, use and verify digital credentials during transactions.
Ontario
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Privacy in Ontario? Webistemology John Wunderlich
MyData Canada recently submitted a report to the Government of Ontario in response to its consultation for strengthening privacy protections in Ontario.
Ontario’s Digital ID will use self-sovereign identity because it gives the holder control over the credentials in their wallet. In addition, we are layering on these extra privacy-preserving features:
- Consent – The verifier must ask you to approve their request to confirm your credentials.
- Data minimization – The verifier can only access what they need to confirm you are eligible for their service. For example, if you need to prove that you are old enough to buy a lottery ticket, the store clerk would only know that you are 18 or older – not your actual age, birth date or anything else about you.
- Anonymity – Your credentials are not tracked or traced.
The Smart Age program provides digital age verification, supported with biometric authentication for restricted product sales like lottery tickets, tobacco, alcohol and other goods and services through a mobile device using verifiable digital credentials and biometrics without a user divulging any personally identifiable information to the store clerk.
Ontario is preparing to launch a digital identification program in the coming months, meaning people will no longer need to carry a physical driver’s licence or health card.
According to the government, Ontario's digital identification program is scheduled to launch in late 2021.
- A summary of findings from government-led public consultations on digital identity
- An overview of Ontario’s Digital ID technology roadmap, and discussions about the technology stacks and infrastructure
- Ontario’s proposed conceptual model for digital identity, and the principles that inform it
- Ontario Releases Technology and Standards for Digital Identity Ontario Newsroom
“Our Ontario Onwards: Action Plan first announced our government’s goal to make Ontario the most advanced digital jurisdiction in the world – all in the service of the people of this province,” said Peter Bethlenfalvy, Minister of Finance. “The release of Ontario’s Digital ID later this year will be an exciting step towards transforming and modernizing government services in an increasingly digital world.”
tech standards that the provincial government says it is currently considering include the Verifiable Credentials Data Model 1.0 for data modeling, Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v1.0 for key management, JSON-LD 1.1 for data formatting, OpenID Connect as identity standard, BBS+ Signatures 2020 and Ed25519 Signature 2020 for signature format, Self-Issued OpenID Provider v2 and more for interoperability.
UCVDCC
- Canadian Government: User-Centric Verifiable Digital Credentials Challenge
This challenge is seeking a portable secure digital credentials (self-sovereign identity) solution held by individuals that can be independently, cryptographically and rapidly verified using emerging distributed ledger standards and an approach that may give rise to a global digital verification platform.
- User-Centric Verifiable Digital Credentials 2019-11-06
“The Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada (TBS) and Shared Services Canada (SSC) are seeking a standardized method to issue and rapidly verify portable digital credentials across many different contexts, thereby reducing human judgement error, increasing efficiency and ensuring digital credential veracity using cryptography.”
Organization
PCTF
- The Public Sector Profile of the Pan-Canadian Trust Framework Working Group Close-Out Report Tim Bouma
the PSP PCTF WG was an important vehicle for ensuring public sector communication and discussion across Canada
- Trust Frameworks? Standards Matter Tim Bouma
He points at the NIST documents about it Developing Trust Frameworks to Support Identity Federations published in 2018. He also points at the Canadian government’s definition of standards.
“a document that provides a set of agreed-upon rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results. Standards establish accepted practices, technical requirements, and terminologies for diverse fields.” He goes on to highlight a lot of the work being done in Canada and where it all sits relative to being a standard - “In closing, there are lots of trust frameworks being developed today. But to be truly trusted, a trust framework needs to either apply existing standards or become a standard itself.”
Biometrics
Sloan invoked the specter of China while discussing the petition, suggesting that any digital identity program would be akin to a social credit program that gives the government too much control over the personal lives of its citizens.
Company
We are thrilled that the academic journal Frontiers in Blockchain accepted our community case study, “Decentralized, Self-Sovereign, Consortium: The Future of Digital Identity in Canada.” This peer-reviewed article focuses on the benefits of self-sovereign identity (SSI) with blockchain and Verified.Me as an example of these concepts being effectively implemented to create a cohesive, secure service and digital identity network.
“Liquid Avatar Technologies shares Indicio’s vision—the world needs technology that works for people by delivering real privacy and security,” said Heather Dahl, CEO of Indicio. “When we launched the Indicio Network, we saw the need for a space for innovative companies to collaborate on changing how we manage identity, enable verification, and create trust. Our partnership with Liquid Avatar Technologies, one of many, shows what can happen when innovators solve pressing problems with ground-breaking technology.”
Paper
- Old Policy, New Tech: Reconciling Permissioned Blockchain Systems with Transatlantic Privacy Frameworks By Remy Hellstern and Victoria Lemieux
This paper will explore the global conversation and consensus around data privacy regulation, with specific attention to the European Union and Canada. It will work to understand how blockchain-based firms situate themselves amid this regulation in relation to the storage of personally identifiable information by looking at relevant policy decisions, legal cases, and commentary from regulatory bodies and commissions.
- Decentralized, Self-Sovereign, Consortium: The Future of Digital Identity in Canada
This article introduces how SecureKey Technologies Inc. (SecureKey) worked with various network participants and innovation partners alongside government, corporate, and consumer-focused collaborators, in a consortium approach to create a mutually beneficial network of self-sovereign identity (SSI) principles with blockchain in Canada.