NHS Digital to enable biometric login for accessing NHS app

NHS Digital said that developers can now include biometric login into their products and services thanks to the two pieces of code the agency has released under open source.

The code will enable patients to get access to the NHS App using face or fingerprint recognition technology.

According to NHS Digital, the new accessibility is intended to allow digital services in the NHS to offer secure login to their apps with an NHS-approved system.

NHS Digital delivery director Chris Fleming said: “The NHS App team has open sourced code which will help those using NHS login as an identity and authentication provider to confirm people’s identity using fingerprint and facial recognition.

“We received great feedback from login users as it sped up the process considerably for them, and we wanted others to benefit from the work. The team has released two libraries for developers.”

The new development to enable the biometric login follows a blogpost on NHS Digital which revealed NHS’ intentions to give the public an opportunity to fulfil their healthcare requirements at the touch of a button on their smartphone or tablet.

According to the agency, due to the sensitive nature of the information provided by the NHS app, security is highly important. This is why users are made to go through multi-factor identifications when logging into the app, said the agency.

However, the agency following an early app feedback, found that the multiple steps for logging into the app were turning into a barrier for users. As a result, it was concluded that an alternative login method was needed to simplify the day to day access to the NHS app.

Biometric login was the plan selected by NHS Digital as the alternative login method for the app, said the agency. NHS Digital said that it does not store or come into contact with any of the user’s biometric identification, which is handled by the device itself.

The agency is said to have worked closely with NHS login to determine the alternative login method. The duo decided to implement the Fast-Identity Online Universal Authentication Framework (FIDO UAF) protocol.

The protocol enables online services and websites, located on the open internet or within enterprises, to transparently make use of native security features of end-user computing devices for secured user authentication.