Digital Gov
The Person credential allows a British Columbian to prove who they are online, easily and confidentially, with information confirmed by the B.C. Government. It’s a digital credential and it’s stored in a smartphone app called BC Wallet. It’s currently in an exploration stage, and not generally available.
Starting with BCeID in 2002 the Government of British Columbia has continued to evolve identity online so it’s safer and more secure for everyone to conduct their digital lives, and the Person credential is our latest exploratory step in that journey.
Benefits of the Person credential include:
- It uses a privacy-preserving and tamper-resistant technology
- It can be validated by any service, automatically and in a few seconds, without needing to confirm anything with the government
- The owner of a Person credential must approve every use (just as with the BC Services Card app), so they can control the sharing of their personal information
- It is based on open standards and technologies, and anyone can review the code.
A digital service that depends on knowing a person is who they claim to be could realize large savings in time and effort by trialing the Person credential alongside existing identity solutions. It’s provided as a service by the BC Digital Trust team.
Teams could also issue their own digital credentials, alongside the Person credential, and then all those credentials can be presented to someone in a single action. This can streamline and simplify processes, for example when a person is representing their business and needs to prove several things to a government service or private sector organization.
For practicalities, the Person credential is stored in the BC Wallet smartphone app. A person needs to set up the BC Services Card app and have their identity verified by Service BC’s rigorous process to get the Person credential. Currently, the Person credential is only made available to select audiences in specific pilot projects while we explore the technology.