The General Services Administration is looking toward the adoption of a Social Security Administration electronic consent-based identity verification system for the distribution of digital services by the government, Nextgov reported Monday.
Phil Lam, GSA’s executive director for identity, explained that his organization is exploring how to bring together different identification requirements by agencies to enable verification at the attribute level direct to an authoritative source.
During an event hosted by a digital rights group, Lam also pointed out that such a model would help reduce the volume of personally identifiable information that could be found on the internet.
“They do it in a privacy preserving way where they’re not sending information out,” he explained. “They’re just saying yes or no.”
Currently, the SSA method is being used by the SSA itself and various financial institutions to prevent identity theft since it was implemented three years ago.
