The ACS has welcomed the news this week that the government will introduce digital driving licences.
Chief executive James Lowman says such licences could be used to help people prove they are old enough to buy age-restricted products.
In his latest blog on the ACS website, Lowman points to the fact that from later this year, retailers will be able to accept digital proof of age for those seeking to buy alcohol.
Last month the Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) reported that the government had given the green light for people to use their mobile phones to prove their age to buy alcohol and to access licensed premises.
PASS CEO Mel Brown says that the priority now is to ensure that retailers have access to a universal system to validate digital proofs of age (dPASS) from accredited issuers.
Lowman, who represents ACS on the board of PASS, echoes this sentiment in his blog, saying that at the moment retailers can accept digital proof-ofage schemes as ID as long as they have an agreement in place with the digital proof-of-age issuer to do so.
“That’s fine but it’s not scalable,” he explains. “If there are 20 different digital proof-of-age schemes issuers, are you going to programme your systems and train your colleagues on 20 different systems to accept these? Of course not.”
Lowman says the challenge now is to determine which digital proofs can be accepted, and PASS has standards in place for that.
The government is helping by setting up the Digital Identity & Attributes Trust Framework. These standardswill be overseen by a new regulator, OfDIA.
Lowman says it’s easy to check proof of age with a physical card, thanks to all its security features but it’smore complex with digital proof of age on a screen. There needs to be a digital “handshake” between the retailer and the customer to verify its validity.
Says Lowman: “PASS now has a system ready to go to do exactly this job. Two quick scans and the proof of age can be verified with minimal data transfer – you only need to know if that person is old enough to buy the product they want, you don’t need to see their address much less get into the ramifications of holding customer information.”
He says the two big challenges for now are getting the digital driving licence on board with that system and promoting a common approach among regulatory bodies and businesses accepting proof of age. “Digital proof of age, including a digital driving licence, offers real benefits for local shops. We need to stay at the centre of discussions on how this is used in stores so that we can fully realise these. There’s a big prize here and I think that PASS’s solution is the best way to claim it.”
Lowman also used his blog to mention another massive opportunity: combining digital proof of age with effective use of age estimation technology, which he says would bring huge savings to retailers using self-service checkouts.
“Customers over 25 could breeze through without age checks, those under 25 could prove their age to the till, with colleagues playing an oversight role. Furthermore, technology playing a greater role in determining customers’ age will reduce the number of times a colleague challenges a customer, something we know causes friction, conflict and even violence on a daily basis.”
