A couple of months ago my Aust Post tracking app had a hissy fit and told me I needed to sign in again and when that failed, I was instructed to sign up with the Aust Post Digital ID.
I suspect the hissy fit was engineered into the app in order to get me to sign up with their Digital ID.
So I signed up with their Digital ID giving them personal identification documents as requested.
Now I discover the app tells me that Aust Post may share information with other parties etc etc.
Shortly thereafter I discovered my medicare card had made an unsolicited turnuppence in my Google Wallet. I did not authorize or ask for this. I suspect this may be linked to my Aust Post Digital ID.
I am wondering if I have made a colossal error in judgement by giving Aust Post all my ID documents, in light of Aust Postâs penchant for sharing information?
Only you can access the personal data we hold about you via the Digital iD⢠app. Australia Post cannot access or view your encrypted information. If you delete your Digital iD⢠account, your data will no longer be accessible to you
to verify your identity in person or digitally, using third-party business partners to check your details back to the source
Australia Post wouldnât be able to check validity of identity documents without using third-parties. These are likely to be the issuer of the identity documents.
This is unlikely be due to Australia Post. It might be something you have done either by mistake or not realising that it was done. An example, you have applied for a digital Medicare card.
No I have not made a mistake nor applied for a digital medicare card. In any event, would it not require my deliberately adding the medicare card to my google wallet?
BB
Right there is a Privacy Policy Problem. It is not stated who these third parties are, what role they play, what their Privacy Policy is, whether they are directly the issuing government or a company that offers a service of interfacing with the government (given that government makes it so hard) or a company acting as an agent of the government, âŚ
This is strange. From what I have read about it only the owner can add items to their google wallet and specifically their medicare card has to go via their MyGov account.
Have you made any enquiries from Google, Medicare or anywhere else about this? I certainly would if I thought actions were happening outside my control.
Yes thats what I thought.
I certainly have NOT added my medicare card to my google wallet, which is why I was surprised to find it turned up in said wallet.
I do have a MyGov account and perhaps thats were the connection happened. But i have no recollection of authorizing my medicare card to go into wallett and i cant think why I would want it to.
The only clue is that my new medicare card turned up in the mail and in the google wallett very close in time to each other.
BB
It appears that if you want to add the Medicare card to your MyGov app, the instructions point to it adding the card to your wallet on the device. Would this perhaps have occurred for you?
This tests my memory but I just checked and my medicare card is NOT in my MyGov app.
I do remember attempting to link my digital ID into the MyGov app but I gave up when it asked for passwords and I couldnât be bothered looking up my password.
Never mind anyway. I think I can just delete it from my google wallet and be done with it
BB
You may have linked it as it only discusses the wallet which is the appâs Google or Apple wallet. I have added mine to my app wallet via the app, Apple in my case.
And yet you have not asked the organisations involved what is going on and speculate that Oz Post is responsible. Given the other personal stuff in your wallet I would have thought finding out from the horses mouth how this happened would be a priority.
It is a mystery then. Looking at information on including Medicare card in Google Wallet, it isnât easy as Medicare Cards donât have QR codes nor barcodes for reference purposes. It appears one might be able to take a photo and manually assign details within the wallet. This would be something you would remember you have done as it isnât as straightforward as adding other cards to the wallet.
The Services Australia talks about Medicare Cards in digital wallets, but this is done by creating a digital Medicare Card and linking it through MyGov.
This might be a silly question, but are you sure the Medicare card is in your Google wallet? Because I donât see any way to add Australian Digital Medicare cards to my Google Wallet.
However, the MyGov app has its own internal âWalletâ, and storing the card in that wallet is part of the process of creating a digital medicare card.
Store government digital cards and certificates in the myGov wallet
You can securely store some government digital cards and certificates in the wallet.
You can add these items to your wallet:
Medicare cards
Centrelink concession and health care cards
Australian Organ Donor Card
Gold or White veteran cards managed by the Department of Veteransâ Affairs
International COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate.
You need to have the relevant service linked to your myGov account and be eligible to add the digital cards and certificates to your wallet. We will add more cards and certificates in future.
Well i would remember something like a photo of medicare card and adding to wallet. Perhaps I have lost one too many of my marbles and cant remember doing this ???
However it happened i dont know. And its not the first time my medicare card has done something without my actions precipitating it.
Besides why would I want my medicare card in my google wallet since I cant use it to purchase anything like a credit card can be used.
Anyway let us wait and see if this happens to anybody else.
BB
This might be a silly question, but are you sure the Medicare card is in your Google wallet? Because I donât see any way to add Australian Digital Medicare cards to my Google Wallet.
However, the MyGov app has its own internal âWalletâ, and storing the card in that wallet is part of the process of creating a digital medicare card.
Yep definitely in my google wallet and shows up as Medicare Loyalty Program with Aust Govt Coat of Arms. See image attached.
And when I touch it, it reveals my medicare number.
I dont like my chances of getting any answers from Oz Post. I had an AustPost debit card from which money disappeared without explanation and chasing it up led nowhere. As also did attempting to get answers from AP regarding âattempted delivery but nobody was homeâ cards left in my letterbox.
It seems easier to see if this has happened to anybody else, before I start chasing my tail with OzPost. Or I could attempt to ask medicare but may end up chasing my tail again, as happened previously when I attempted to find out why changes were made to my medicare card without my knowing or consent.
How strange! Yes, if I add a âloyaltyâ card in Google Wallet, one of the options is a âMedicare loyalty cardâ (which is meaningless concept. Loyalty card for Medicare? Does one earn points and eventually get a fully free visit to the GP, or something??)
That asks for QR code or âmanual entryâ. If I choose manual entry, I can enter a âmembershipâ number. It accepts any number! I just added one of these cards by giving it number 1! So thereâs no verification or anything.
This is what it looks like in my Google Wallet if I tap on the âcardâ:
Anyone could add that coat of arms image, of course ⌠so this âloyaltyâ card option might even be a scam. Presumably, this card type doesnât have to be checked and authorised, unlike credit cards, so itâs probably quite easy to have one added to Walletâs list.
But I still donât see how one of these cards was added silently in Google Wallet by the AustPost or any other app, unless thereâs something fishy going on. AFAIK, the only way to get any type of card into Google Wallet is to add it manually.
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