5 The online citizen
70. We
have become increasingly concerned that the benefits of data sharing
that might be achieved, in both governance and economic growth,
are at risk because the public distrusts the technology and some
organisations that provide online services. The Government has
been working to provide an identity assurance scheme that would
give those in receipt of Government benefits an online presence
so that individual citizens can manage their personal details
in their transactions with the State. This scheme could be the
basis for all UK citizens to have a protected, online identity
that could be used, if the Government was willing, for both governance
and online commercial activities.
71. We have
also seen that the Government's approach to online safety has
been piecemeal and conducted tactically to meet immediate needs
with little evidence of any horizon scanning. The Government should
be considering now how it wants UK citizens to engage with both
governmental and commercial online services. It should be seeking
to provide a platform for UK citizens to engage those services
without unnecessarily risking their personal data and enabling
its citizens to make informed choices about what data to share,
with whom and for what purpose. Future prosperity will be impacted
by how well information flows between government, citizens and
business. The Government needs to begin work so that all of its
citizens have firm and secure foundations from which to build
their online functionality.
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