Projects

PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION AND IDENTITY MANAGEMENT IN NEW MODES OF E-GOVERNMENT

Summary

This two-year project derives from the need for government to be able to authenticate personal identifiers that are provided directly or indirectly by citizens in their e-government relationships. The project recognizes an increasing requirement for digital rather than physical forms of personal identification and authentication, a trend that in many countries is leading to the building of complete identity profiles on citizens. Moreover, the personal data yielded by the citizen may be subject to varying management practices in different back-offices, including the extent to which those data are shared.

This research focuses upon specific technologies that are used to collect and compile personal data for identity management purposes. These technologies include:

• The Internet, through the opportunities it permits for on-line transactions between government and citizens and the recording of personal data in so-doing
• Electronic tagging technology recording the location of the tagged citizen
• Biometric technology such as iris scanning collecting personal data at key travel points such as Airports
• Fixed and mobile telephony through which citizens increasingly transact with government and in so-doing yield personal data

The research will address a number of key questions including:

• How are 'personal identity', 'identification' and 'identity management' being reconstructed in different policy fields?
• To what extent are complexities in different institutional settings creating and sustaining ambiguities in operational definitions of these core concepts?
• What are the managerial and governmental implications of these developments?
• What information resources are deriving from these new approaches to personal identification and identity management?
• What are the implications for citizens and citizenship of these new developments?
• Can cross-governmental learning occur within this field of identity management?

It is against this background that this research will gather data on the digital means for facilitating the construction of identity and identity management in e-government. This project will seek evidence on the managerial, governmental and societal implications of these new digital means of identity construction, so as to provide governments and citizens with deeper understanding of shifting information relationships between them. This research will also seek new conceptual understanding of the nature of 'identity', 'identity management' and 'authentication' in e-government and seek to place this conceptual development into theoretical contexts that enable clarification of the changing roles of administration and the citizen.

This research will bring benefits to stakeholders through:

• Its contribution to managerial practice in government by gathering evidence on the managerial and governmental implications of these new digital means of identity management within complex institutional environments.
• Its contribution to knowledge and the deeper understanding it will bring to the relationship between new identity management systems and the nature of citizenship.
• Its development of new conceptual understanding of the nature of key concepts such as 'personal identity', 'identification' and 'identity management' in digitalised service delivery environments between government and the citizen.
• Its development of the theoretical context of the information polity through the incorporation of new citizen relationships emanating from the development of identity management in e-government environments.

The research is being undertaken in a period when public policymakers are eager to develop common standards for identity management, not least so as to ease of access for the citizen. This work crosses policy boundaries, works from case studies that emerge from different technological bases and takes into account international practice in identity management. These cases will enrich this field through fine-grained analysis of newly reshaping information relationships between the citizen and government. They will further enrich the field through the detail they bring forward on the challenges to the system of public administration that they foreground. By doing so, they will provide governments and citizens with deeper understanding of shifting information relationships between them.

Non-academic users are directly and closely engaged in the research process in several ways and at several stages during the project. The research team thus aims to enhance the potential value of the research for each of these user groups. First, non-academic stakeholders from UK central and local government as well as consumer organisations are actively represented in the advisory group to this research project. Secondly, two focus groups with non-academic users, one with policy specialists and one with user groups, are considered as an important part of the research design and implementation. Thirdly, a joint research symposium for representatives of non-academic stakeholders, such as policy makers and user groups, as well as academic stakeholders, is planned in the last phase of the research project.

In addition, dissemination of the research results will take place through presentations for partners of the European PRIME project in which the Principal Applicant is activity leader for research on the socio-economic 'requirements for privacy enhanced identity management in different European regions.

Activites

Presentations by Invitation:

‘ Personal Identification and Identity Management in New Modes of e-Government'. Presentation to Identity, Technology & the Public Interest: New Directions for Research and Public Policy seminar, IPPR, London , 17 th January 2005 [ML, JT]

‘Is the Management of Identity for e-Government Redefining Citizenship?'. Presentation to University of Wales , April 2005 [JT]

‘Identity Management in eGovernment: Towards a Public Administration Perspective'. Presentation to Public Services Summit@Nobel Week - The Trust Cluster: Dealing Effectively with Security, Privacy, Identity and Authentication at the Heart of Connected Government, Stockholm , 8-11 December 2005 [ML]

‘Personal Identification and Identity Management in New Modes of
e-Government'. Presentation at the Victor de Stuers seminar organised by the Departments of Public Administration and Political Science, Leiden University, The Netherlands, 2nd June 2006 [ML]

‘Identity Management, Administrative Sorting and Citizenship in New Modes of E-Government'. Presentation at the GOVCERT.NL 5th international ICT and Information Security Symposium, The Hague, The Netherlands, 14 - 15 September 2006 [ML]

‘Personal Identification and Identity Management in New Modes of e-Government'. Presentation to Digital Municipalities: Challenges to Local Democracy in Europe . Oxford Internet Institute, 3 rd November 2006 [JO,ML,JT]

‘Citizen Identification and the Quest for Public Services Improvement: Themes and Issues' paper to e-Society Programme Wide Event, 11 th April 2007, Docklands London [JT, ML, JO

‘The Service State and the Surveillance Society: E-benefits and E-assessments in Information Age Public Service Provision' paper to e-Society Programme Event Information Sharing, Assessment and e-Technology in Social Care , 14-15 May 2007 The Grange Hotel, York [ML, JT, JO]

Outputs

Journal Articles:

Taylor, J.A., A.M.B. Lips and J. Organ, ‘ Information-intensive Government and the Layering and Sorting of Citizenship in: Public Money and Management , 2007, Vol.27, No 2, p161-164

Lips, A.M.B., J. Organ, & J.A. Taylor, ‘Identity Management, Administrative Sorting and Citizenship in New Modes of Government'. Submitted to the journal Information, Communication & Society in April 2007

Chapters:

‘Freedom with Information: Electronic Government, Information Intensity and Challenges to Citizenship' in Chapman & Hunt, Freedom of Information: perspectives on open government in a theoretical and practical context , Ashgate, 2006 [JT, ML, JO]

‘Identity Management as Public Innovation: Looking Beyond ID Cards and Authentication systems' V.J.J.M. Bekkers, H.P.M. van Duivenboden & M. Thaens (eds.), ICT and Public Innovation: assessing the modernisation of public administration , 2006, IOS Press, Amsterdam, [ML,JT,JO]

‘E-Government Under Construction: Challenging Traditional Conceptions of Citizenship' in V.Koutrakou and P. Nixon (eds) e-Government in Europe : Re-booting the State , 2006, London Routledge [ML]

Papers:

‘Freedom with Information: Electronic Government, Information Intensity and Challenges to Citizenship'. Paper to PAC workshop on Freedom of Information: Perspectives on Open Government in a Theoretical and Practical Context, Durham Business School , 4th-6th April 2005 [JT]

‘Personal Identification and Identity Management in New Modes of E-Government'. Paper to New Approaches to Research on the Social Implications of Emerging Technologies OII/MIT workshop, Oxford Internet Institute, 15 th -16 th April 2005 [ML, JT, JO]

‘ Electronic Government: Towards New Forms of Authentication, Citizenship and Governance'. Paper to Safety and Security in a Networked World: Balancing Cyber-Rights and Responsibilities, Oxford Internet Institute/Said Business School , 8-10 th October 2005 [ML, JT, JO]

‘The Citizen, the State and the ID Nexus: attention to information, societal shaping and modes of citizen sorting' paper to the e-Society Programme Wide event, York , September 18 th /19 th 2006 [JT, ML, JO]

‘Identity Management, Administrative Sorting and Citizenship in New Modes of E-Government' paper to Journal of Information, Communication & Society, 10th Anniversary International Symposium, University of York, 20th - 22nd September 2006 [ML,JT,JO]

‘The Service State and the Surveillance Society: E-benefits and E-assessments in Information Age Public Service Provision' paper to Information Sharing, Assessment and e-Technology in Social Care 14-15 May 2007 The Grange Hotel, York [ML, JT, JO]

‘Citizen Identification, Surveillance and the Quest for Public Service Improvement: Themes and Issues' paper to the European Consortium of Political Research ‘Privacy and Information: Modes of Regulation' Joint Session Helsinki 7-12 May 2007 [JT, ML, JO]

Miscellaneous:

On the Identity Trail Research Programme, University of Ottawa , http://www.idtrail.org/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
– blog contribution, April 2006 [ML]