Norway: Biometric digital identity is coming
(Picture keystone/Christian Beutler)
by Thomas Oysmüller*
(11 July 2022) Norway is abolishing its old digital registration system and is rolling out a digital identity that will be linked to biometric data.
The Norwegian system “BankID” is being updated and is growing into a digital identity
including biometric data. The previous digital recognition system had been in use since 2009 and was useful for a variety of services and things. Now comes something new that “streamlines” the way you can verify your own digital identity online.
Norway digital and biometric
The novelty: the new apps will have biometrics, facial recognition and fingerprint, built in. This switch to a biometric system was announced by Jan Bjerved, of the Norwegian payment system “BankAxept”. It is not yet clear by when the changeover will take place, but the final end for “BankID” is expected to come in 2023.
More than 4 million Norwegians, more than 80 percent of the population, currently use the so-called “BankID”, many of them on a daily basis. It was a “revolution” in 2009, but now people want something “simpler”, says Bjerved. It is indeed only a small step to a digital society for Norway. “BankID” is required when buying online. The current “BankID” can be used voluntarily for doctor’s appointments (on the website of the Norwegian Ministry of Health you can then also see your own vaccination appointments), tax settlements, payment of administrative fines or car sales.
The previous system was already a “digital ID system”, writes Swedish journalist Peter Imanuelsen.1 “Simply put, digital identity is widespread in Norway.” The new step now is to link the digital identity with biometric data. The “BankID” can also be accessed by code sent by SMS (known as TAN in Austria), but this system will be phased out.
It will be replaced by apps that recognise faces and fingerprints. A password is also likely to be necessary. “You will still need to use a personal password when signing contracts or in other situations requiring extra security,” says Bjerved of “BankAxept”.
Political priority
People are sold this as more simplicity. The new system is more practical, he says, because logging in would then only take 10 seconds instead of the previous 30 seconds. That would be far more “convenient”. In exchange for the time saved, Norwegians will become even more of a transparent citizen.
Imanuelsen analyses the new digital ID in Norway this way: “so we’re getting to the point where not only will we have a digital ID, but people will also use their face or fingerprints to access it. In neighbouring Sweden, about 6,000 people have already gone a step further and had a microchip implanted so they can make cashless payments.”
Similar developments as in Norway are seen in other European countries. In Austria, the “mobile phone signature”, which had proven itself for years, is being replaced by “ID Austria”. Unlike the mobile phone signature, “ID Austria” will also require biometric data and smartphone registration. Very similar to the Norwegian proposal. TKP reported.2
A few days after the re-election of Emmanuel Macron, France announced a push for digital identity.3 The implementation of new citizen registration systems is likely to be a high priority in European politics.
Currently, all these projects, of which there are many more in EU states, are running under the label of “voluntary”. Critics and sceptics fear that biometric digital identity could become compulsory in the future in order to be able to claim benefits, for services or other things.
| * Thomas Oysmüller, born in 1990, studied philosophy and social sciences, is a freelance journalist and used to work for the German online radio station detektor.fm, for a few years at zackzack.at and for smaller newspapers. |
Source: https://tkp.at/2022/05/14/norwegen-biometrische-digital-identitaet-kommt/, 14 May 2022
Reprinted with kind permission of the author.
(Translation “Swiss Standpoint”)
1 https://petersweden.substack.com/p/digital-id-biometrics?s=r
3 https://tkp.at/2022/04/29/frankreich-rollt-digital-id-aus-wenige-tage-nach-macrons-wiederwahl/