New Zealand and Scotland’s Progression into a Life Controlled by Digital IDs

New Zealand’s Managed Isolation and Quarantine (“MIQ”) program were keeping records of its staff during the “pandemic” using a JNCTN app.  Now, JNCTN-produced software tools are seeking to serve as digital ID verification for staff of other organisations.

JNCTN has partnered with a UK digital ID company Yoti and NEC New Zealand. The JNCTN/NEC partnership integrates JNCTN’s cloud-based solutions within NEC’s biometric authentication technology and processes

Yoti has also partnered with the Scottish Government to provide a digital ID system. At the same time as partnering with Yoti, the Scottish Government partnered with cloud solutions provider Brightsolid.

The parallels between the two countries are not a coincidence.

New Zealand’s Progression Towards Digital Identities

Compulsory managed isolation and quarantine was announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on 9 April 2020, with the program coming into effect for people boarding flights to New Zealand from midnight that day.  Anyone entering New Zealand was required to enter MIQ and isolation facilities were opened.

Further reading: Covid-19: A timeline of New Zealand’s MIQ system, 1 News, 3 February 2022

Covid travel restrictions provided the perfect opportunity for the New Zealand government to test a digital ID system within the MIQ program. When JNCTN heard about the government’s plans for MIQ facilities, it knew it had the right tools “to help.”  The JNCTN app had been used by StayLive, an industry body for New Zealand’s electricity sector, since 2016 to record workers’ training and competencies.

“With the JNCTN app, there are no more spreadsheets that need to be maintained and uploaded by course administrators. You just scan the app at your course and the information is automatically available in the cloud, then you can scan in on-site straight away,” Jarrod Bowler, Group Manager of Safety and Wellness, Genesis, said. “The app is a digital wallet that contains all workers’ skills, as well as their academic record and licence details.”

For MIQ, JNCTN was responsible for creating “an efficient ecosystem” of credential providers, from trainers to people carrying out staff inductions to vaccination providers and many more, so employee records could be updated and monitored in real time. The next task was creating an individual profile for each worker, giving them access to their identification credentials via a digital wallet. Then, on arriving at work, they could simply scan in via a unique QR code holding all their information.

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