Australia Seeks Upgraded Liveness Detection for National Digital ID App

The Australian Taxation Office has issued a request for information for biometric liveness detection technology to strengthen the myID digital identity app, the authentication gateway used by millions of Australians to access government services through the Australian Government’s Digital Identity System.

The RFI, published on AusTender, calls for presentation attack detection that meets at least Evaluation Assurance Level 2 (Level B) under ISO/IEC 30107-3:2023 and the Digital ID Accreditation Data Standards. A qualified third-party assessor must attest to the PAD capability, and the entire biometric verification workflow – including document capture, facial matching, and liveness verification – must execute as a single continuous process rather than as discrete sequential steps.

The agency specified that the replacement solution must be delivered as software-as-a-service and handle peak workloads of 10,000 verifications per hour with 95th-percentile response times under one second. The ATO noted that significant advances in both liveness detection and adversarial attack techniques since 2021 – when its current capability was sourced from iProov through an open tender – prompted the market sounding. The agency is specifically concerned about emerging threats including AI-generated deepfakes and increasingly sophisticated presentation attacks that target mobile device cameras.

Australia rebranded its national digital ID system from myGovID to myID as part of broader reforms under the Digital ID Act 2024, which established a formal accreditation framework for identity service providers. The platform supports tiered identity strength levels, with the stronger tier requiring facial liveness detection for enrollment and periodic re-verification. Australia Post shut down its competing Digital iD service as government-issued credentials consolidated their position in the market.

The RFI also seeks capabilities for document authenticity validation using optical character recognition and near-field communication chip reading for chipped identity documents such as passports and national identity cards. Vendors may propose solutions covering some or all of the specified capabilities, and the ATO indicated it is open to both established biometric vendors and newer market entrants. Responses are due by 28 May, after which the agency expects to proceed to a formal procurement process to replace its existing liveness detection infrastructure.

Sources: The Mandarin, AusTender

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By the ID Tech Editorial Team