from Centrist.nz
- MATTR, the company behind My Vaccine Pass, is back—this time powering the new NZ Verify digital ID app.
- The app was launched in May 2025 by the Department of Internal Affairs, but MATTR isn’t mentioned in any official announcements.
- The only reference to MATTR appears in the app’s fine print as the licensor of core technology.
- Ministers say the current function of NZ Verify is just the start.
- The lack of transparency is unusual given MATTR’s past prominence and the stakes of digital identity infrastructure
Auckland-based ‘trust tech’ firm MATTR – best known for building the My Vaccine Pass and helping deliver the most far-reaching access restrictions in New Zealand history – has quietly returned via a new government-backed digital ID project.
This time, the company is uncredited in official materials, despite powering what may become the backbone of New Zealand’s future identity infrastructure – now overseen by the Department of Internal Affairs, and echoing the very “two-tier society” once outlined by Jacinda Ardern.
Many would – and arguably should – take interest in the company’s involvement. But MATTR’s name is entirely absent from government press materials this time around.
This doesn’t imply anything sinister. But for a company helping build national identity infrastructure – and one that previously held the keys to everyday access during covid – that level of invisibility is a story in itself.
That’s what the digital ID to use Facebook is all about – get that in place for “the sake of the children” and rest will be easy.
Beware the creeping blanket.