In order to verify my identity to access gov.uk services, the app complained that my Android 10 phone was too old (a curt "update to a newer version" was the only error message visible). It's already mental that you have to own a smartphone with google spyware to access government services (what about people who don't own such devices or don't know how to operate them?), but now even the second most recent version of android is not good enough.
I eventually borrowed a friend's phone. It proceeded to stonewall me and insist I was not a real person, again with no visible error message or explanation apart from a strange oscillating blue 3D head... Kafkaesque doesn't begin to describe it.
It's indeed one of the weirdest modern tech phenomena: you are blocked/flagged/shadowbanned/what have you by an inscrutable AI and given no reason or explanation, just a blank "you have been banned".
My husband was not able to download his earnings report from the social security website because the verification system did not work for him. My guess is it's because he doesn't have a recent credit history (we've been debt free for five years now) but it worked fine for me so who knows?
The other option was to go in person to the local social security office, but at the time it was completely closed due to COVID.
Speaking of, whatever happened to that federated(?) ID thing where you are given the choice of several companies like Experian to validate your identity? I signed up years ago to do one thing and never used it since.
Always seemed a bit odd to me, because I would have thought that even if the government didn't trust its own departments to validate government-issued documents securely (fair enough, actually, they'd probably leave it on a train), all they had to do is provide their own separate, secure, service. They say the government won't know who you're validating with, but why is that an issue anyway. At some point you have to trust the government if you're verifying your identity with their own documents in order to access government services.
Though I guess it's probably just because when they eventually do get hacked they can just blame the provider and ditch them publicly rather than have another IT disaster in the papers with their name on it.
I believe you are referring to the gov.uk Verify service [1]. It's still in existence, but on it's way out due to poor uptake.
It was pushed agressively at one point by GDS, but despite what it claims about being easy to use, it provided a poor user experience, with very high failure rates for certain demographics.
Universal login, which was the vision for this product for UK government services, is a seemingly appealing proposition but if a high percentage of people can't use it, it's pretty much doomed.
The various UK government departments adopted it sparingly or developed alternatives, which further undermined it.
Comments
In order to verify my identity to access gov.uk services, the app complained that my Android 10 phone was too old (a curt "update to a newer version" was the only error message visible). It's already mental that you have to own a smartphone with google spyware to access government services (what about people who don't own such devices or don't know how to operate them?), but now even the second most recent version of android is not good enough.
I eventually borrowed a friend's phone. It proceeded to stonewall me and insist I was not a real person, again with no visible error message or explanation apart from a strange oscillating blue 3D head... Kafkaesque doesn't begin to describe it.
It's indeed one of the weirdest modern tech phenomena: you are blocked/flagged/shadowbanned/what have you by an inscrutable AI and given no reason or explanation, just a blank "you have been banned".
My husband was not able to download his earnings report from the social security website because the verification system did not work for him. My guess is it's because he doesn't have a recent credit history (we've been debt free for five years now) but it worked fine for me so who knows?
The other option was to go in person to the local social security office, but at the time it was completely closed due to COVID.
Speaking of, whatever happened to that federated(?) ID thing where you are given the choice of several companies like Experian to validate your identity? I signed up years ago to do one thing and never used it since.
Always seemed a bit odd to me, because I would have thought that even if the government didn't trust its own departments to validate government-issued documents securely (fair enough, actually, they'd probably leave it on a train), all they had to do is provide their own separate, secure, service. They say the government won't know who you're validating with, but why is that an issue anyway. At some point you have to trust the government if you're verifying your identity with their own documents in order to access government services.
Though I guess it's probably just because when they eventually do get hacked they can just blame the provider and ditch them publicly rather than have another IT disaster in the papers with their name on it.
I believe you are referring to the gov.uk Verify service [1]. It's still in existence, but on it's way out due to poor uptake.
It was pushed agressively at one point by GDS, but despite what it claims about being easy to use, it provided a poor user experience, with very high failure rates for certain demographics.
Universal login, which was the vision for this product for UK government services, is a seemingly appealing proposition but if a high percentage of people can't use it, it's pretty much doomed.
The various UK government departments adopted it sparingly or developed alternatives, which further undermined it.
1 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/introducing-govuk...
I've used the UK verify service, and it was pretty horrible then. Only country I've seen do it somewhat well is Singapore, with Singpass.