Facebook accounts could be used to prove identity to access public services

Government to publish list of certified providers that can help people login securely to revamped gov.uk portal

You may soon be able to use your Facebook or banking login details to access official government services. Photograph: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

Personal login details for social networking sites, bank accounts and personal mobile phone accounts could be used be used as official proof of identity to access public services, the Cabinet Office has confirmed.

Ministers are to announce in the next few weeks the first list of potential "certified providers" for its "identity assurance programme", which will allow citizens to assert their identity safely and securely online to access public services.

The scheme is intended to help people sign in securely to the gov.uk site that is being developed as a portal for all online government services, including looking for a job, applying for welfare benefits, paying car tax or applying for a passport or a student loan.

The Cabinet Office says the scheme is specifically designed for citizens to retain control of their own data, avoiding the issues of privacy and security raised by a centralised database that was involved in Labour's national identity card scheme.

Under the scheme each individual is to be allowed to choose from a range of "trusted non-government organisations" to verify their identity without centrally storing or sharing their personal data or having knowledge of the government service that has asked for proof of identity.

The Cabinet Office would not name individual companies but confirmed that the Department for Work and Pensions is working with the Cabinet Office identity assurance team to ensure that it will be available for the launch of the universal credit scheme for the unemployed and those on low incomes scheduled for 2013-14.
The scheme is being billed as way of tackling identity theft and to help overcome "login fatigue" – having to remember too many logons, passwords and answers to security questions.

The scheme has been dubbed Cabinet Office minister Frances Maude's "little brother" project.
Privacy organisations such as the No2ID campaign, which has been consulted about the project, retain a degree of scepticism: "Although this is a fine scheme in principle and is backed by ministers the danger is that it could be sidelined and used as a fig leaf by the data-hungry government departments," Guy Herbert of No2ID told the Independent.

Banks and mobile phone companies have a fairly secure idea of their customers' profiles and identities. But using personal profiles on social media network sites, such as Facebook, which are not necessarily verified, may raise questions about how far somebody with a fake account could use it to build an official identity for themselves with birth certificate, passports, driving licence and the rest.