New Zealand has adopted legislation granting the powers for a new national online identity verification service run by the government jointly with New Zealand Post.NZ Post is set to get even more involved in ID services (see last year's New Zealand ID Management: New Possibilities).
The Electronic Identity Verification Act was passed by the nation’s Parliament last week, allowing private sector organisations to access the RealMe ID verification service.
The service launches in 2013 to verify people that use certain services over the Internet are who they claim to be.
Around the world, enterprising postal services — who have seen their traditional business model of moving paper around steadily eroded — have been changing adding more explicit identity management services. I say "more explicit" because I believe it can be argued that the primary function of the postal service has always been identity management, the paper part was just ancillary to the ID part.
This post, The Post Office, Identity Assurance & Biometrics, expands on the theme.
Click Postal Service (or use the label in the footer) for more on post offices and ID services.
