I know that most European countries now have electronic identity cards which contain microchips, thus they store identity information which is readable by computers or smartphones. The EU’s [eID website](https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/wikis/display/DIGITAL/Country+overview) stores many records of digital identities based on these cards.
But do you have other identities that don’t require the physical card?
In Italy we have SPID, a digital identity which offers three levels of authentication. It was created by the government but it is implemented by private “identity providers”, of which there are now 10. To register, after entering your information online it is verified by one of various means: smart card (like electronic identity card, health insurance card or passport), in person at an office/affiliated establishment, webcam call, recorded video with a document + small wire transfer. Some of these are free and some are paid (usually between 10 and 15 €); using SPID afterwards is free. Level 1 authentication works by entering just username (e-mail) and password, level 2 requires username, password and a TOTP code (generated either by an app from the provider or via SMS), level 3 is mostly used by professionals and requires username, password and a physical certificate token like a smart card or a remote signature device. Level 2 is the most used, which corresponds to the eIDAS security level “substantial”; it’s the websites/services that have to decide what level to use according to the risk to personal data of the activities that they allow. There are some implementations to simplify level 2 access, like generating a QR code or push notification request so that you don’t have to enter username and password, and biometric identification for the TOTP app so that you don’t have to enter the PIN code for it.
SPID is mostly used to access public administration services but some private services are starting to adopt it, although it’s not yet widespread.
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In Finland, we do have chips in our ID cards, but using them is not common. The de facto online identification method is to use bank or mobile ID.
For tax nearly everything works online. Of course for tax, since in Germany nothing is more important.
Regarding other topics ask me again in 10 years. Maybe they realize it’s useful, when we don’t have that many people working anymore due to the aging of our population.
We have the digID, which is mostly used as a passport-verified app with a login code. It’s used for all government stuff. If it works as it should (😬), it’s quite easy to use.
We have DigiD, a digital identity to log into all government-related IT-systems. I have an app on my phone and can use it to sign my tax declarations, to request a new drivers’ license and the place where I receive all communication from the government etc.
We have DigiD which is your digital ID. Apparently launched in 2003 and commonly used. Most of us use DigiD for the yearly tax declaration. But you can use it for other things as well, like your health insurance, or applying for allowances or checking your student loans or checking your pension. You can login via an app, or with a password and text check or with your passport/id-card.
In Denmark we recently upgraded to a new digital ID system called MitID (Litterally: MyID), you have it as an app on your phone, you use it for logging into all manner of public and semipublic services and for authorising payments for online purchases as well.
We have what’s called a “Profil Zaufany”, trusted profile, which is a part of the [ePUAP](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUAP) system. You can basically use that as your digital signature on a bunch of different government websites. Mine is tethered to my bank account to make sure it is me, not sure if there are other methods of doing it.
We also have a mobile app called mObywatel (mCitizen), which lets you have some of your documents (ID, COVID Vax certificate, student ID, driver’s license and more).
Not common with physical cards here. We have apps, with the largest and most common one being Mobile BankID. It’s used to confirm your identity for almost every function in society today. This includes logging into government agencies, tax authorities, digital banks, confirming purchases online, etc.
BankID is a sort of collaboration between the 12 largest banks in Sweden. You can get a mobile BankID by first getting a personal identification number (personnummer), which swedes receive automatically by the tax authorities.
Using it is incredibly easy. It goes something like this:
1. Enter personal ID into website/app/online store. Click that you want to proceed with BankID (if not done automatically).
2. Website/app/online store asks you to open BankID app to confirm identity.
3. Open BankID app and enter 6 digit password or use fingerprint. Done, you have now confirmed identity and have logged into the website or confirmed purchase.
Identity cards is a very political topic here. We go all American and start talking about freedom and rights when ID cards come up. So we don’t have physical IDs let alone digital ones. Driving licence (including provisional) is the de-facto ID for day to day.
For most government services you log in using your unique “national insurance number” which is automatically assigned to all citizens.
We have a governmentId (MinId /Idporten) which is used for most government services. MinId by itself only uses username, password and app/SMS verification codes.
To access medical or financial data, a stronger verification is needed. So it is also posdible to use other digital IDs with Idporten, the most popular being BankId. Other European IDs are in a testing phase right now, I think it will be possible to use them sometime next year.
We have digitalID that is used for government and public portals. Using that so you don’t have to go to physical locations for various permits and certificates. It has several different levels which can, but do not need to be connected to a physical card (eg students get one level for their college related stuff and can link it to their student id, your bank card can be linked etc). On the highest level, you can link it with your smart ID card (the latest edition) and then you unlock a whole array of functionality with and without the card being physically used (for example driving licence, building permits, social security, taxes, medical status, school status, it all goes there)
Now, how common is it used is a whole different story. I believe most older (50+) people still prefer doing things in person or don’t know enough of IT to use digital profile. The rest use it, but on different function level.
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For the most part the _It’sMe_ app is used for authenticating with services. To set it up you need a computer with a card reader because you need your eID to authenticate and authorize the app.
The way this works is, when you want to login to something, you provide your phone number and then an authorization request appears in the app. You then have to approve it and provide your pin. Occasionally you also need to match symbols (tick the symbol in the app that’s shown on the computer screen) but this only guaranteed to show up when signing a document, otherwise it appears at random. I suppose this is to guard against people who just habitually approve MFA requests without much thought.
Uhhh… no iirc.
If you want to deal with the queues and don’t want to set up an appointment physically with some institution you have to put in the CNP (numeric personal code), an email address, phone number, and such every time you do.
Or you brave the queues.
Chipped ID cards also ran into controversies a lot due to people saying that it’s Satanic and whatnot (CARD=DRAC -card=devil- duh), and even to this day they aren’t universal.
No, we don’t like ID cards over here, either physical or digital.
We have an “it’s me” app basically tied to your identity.
You can basically find out all sorts of things with it. Your taxes and such mainly.
It’s also used if you want to say, ask permission to place a shack in your yard.
Basically unless you have to physically go and get something you can do bank and government stuff from home.
The chip in our ID does basically nothing more than a barcode.
Enters the information visible on the card into whatever program is used with it.
For example my chip was fucked and when I went to the hospital for my covid shot the result was basically the person in front of me filling in name, adres, etc. manually.
We have ID cards in Estonia. It`s basically a second passport. But you can also use it to sign digital documents and to log in, on some government pages or other platforms that have the feature. As for a none physical one, there is e-citizenship for none citizens but i`m not insightful enough on how that works, all i know is that people try to abuse it every now and then. And there is just a government page to log in to, that has all ya stuff like, doctors visits, taxes, drivers license, military service, government notices etc, and you can do some application forms through it.
In Turkey we do have chips in our ID cards. It’s looks similar to credit 💳. You can use NFC to scan them with phone for some verification steps for some applications. And they have holograms inside of it.