ID services

On this page

• What's an ID service
• ID services available
• Find which ID services to use
• Technical guidance to accept an ID
• Talk to someone

What's an ID service

It's what you use to determine who's accessing your service. Sometimes it's called an identity provider, a digital ID service, a login service or an authentication service.

They help you do things like: 

• Secure websites, applications and mobile apps
• Uniquely identify someone when they log in so you can remember them 
• Get information about a person or a business 
• Prove something about a person (for example, their name, where they work, that belong to an organization, etc) 
• Identify someone in-person

ID services available

There are many ID services you can use for your service. You might use multiple options to help you reach the most people.

We’re focusing on the ones provided or used by the B.C. government:

• BC Services Card Login
• Business BCeID
• Basic BCeID
• IDIR
• Federated accounts (including Yukon)
• GitHub account
• Digital credentials (such as a Person credential)
• Microsoft guest account 

We're not reviewing ones that are less commonly used, such as:

• Personal BCeID (retiring soon)
• Internet Service accounts
• Biometrics accounts
• Digital Certificate accounts

Find which ID services to use

There are many ways to determine which ID services to use for your service. 

Compare options by:

• What's recommended, coming soon or retiring
• Who uses your service (public sector, businesses, general public)
• How confident you need to be that someone is who they claim to be (level of assurance)
• What information is available about a person or organization

Or, view a high level comparison of the ID services:

• Comparison of ID Services (PDF, 113KB)

Technical guidance to accept an ID 

There are usually many different ways you can implement each ID service. 

Get guidance

Talk to someone

If you need help figuring out which ID services to use, email DItrust@gov.bc.ca.