Brussels proposes a digital wallet to carry all documents on your mobile. Soon, we Europeans could have an electronic wallet to store our digital identity and prove our data online, which will facilitate cumbersome bureaucratic procedures or commercial transactions.
The European Commission proposes to create these digital wallets to store personal data and official documents, such as a driver’s license or university diplomas, validating their authenticity to be used throughout the EU. In this way, it will be as if we had all these documents on our mobile ready to be used.
The proposal, which had been flying overhead for a long time, has benefited from the slipstream of the pandemic, given the importance it has gained in facilitating contacts and digital transactions as a result of COVID-19.
This digital identity wallet will be available to all EU citizens and businesses. Its use will be voluntary and will not replace the electronic identity cards issued by a large part of the Member States.
“The European digital identity will allow us to do in any Member State what we do in ours without additional costs and with fewer barriers, be it renting a flat or opening a bank account outside our country,” explained the European Vice President in charge of the area. Digital, Margrethe Vestager.
Europeans will be able to use these digital wallets throughout the EU to identify themselves when accessing certain public or private services, physically or via the Internet, or to demonstrate attributes such as their age, without having to share more information.
Although the details have yet to be polished, it would be similar to other applications and electronic wallets that companies such as Google or Apple already offer on their mobiles, to store airline tickets or bank cards.
Brussels wants this digital identity portfolio to be mandatory for the 27 from the start. Countries will have until September 2022 to develop their design and technical standards, so that it is homogeneous and operates seamlessly across all member states.
An important factor will be cybersecurity and information control, since the Commission emphasizes that citizens will be able to better decide what information they share with companies and organizations online or through their mobile phones, compared to the current identification systems of Google or Facebook. .
