The Federal Ministry of the Interior is celebrating ten years of electronic identity cards: On November 1st 2010 the “E-Perso” in credit card format was introduced. For the first time it contained an RFID chip that was not familiar to all users. This should enable secure electronic identification on the Internet. A success story for the interior department: “Over 62 million Germans already have an identity card with the chip and thus an online identity card.”

No special reader required The E-Perso is actually in use with the electronic one Proof of identity (eID) but hardly any: According to the “E-Government Monitor 2020” of Initiative D 21 only six percent of the respondents have used the online identification function – just as few as 2019. Politicians have removed one major hurdle for use: a special USB reader is no longer necessary. Since 2017 Android smartphones with NFC chips have been able to read the eID, since the end of 2019 also iPhones .

So far, online identification via mobile phone has not been running smoothly. Even Bernhard Rohleder, managing director of the IT association Bitkom, noticed that the connection with the smartphone is “a bit more complicated” and takes “a little longer”. Due to the high security standards, it “doesn’t work the first time either,” he complained on Deutschlandfunk. In addition, it is “rather exotic applications” such as viewing your own Stasi documents that can be activated via the eID function.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer sees it differently: Admission – you can apply for all of this with your electronic identity card. ” During the coronavirus pandemic alone, between February and August 62 percent more uses of the eID were registered – starting from a very low level.

More services are to be available “And we are working with industry to ensure that online ID cards are used even more widely in the future can “, emphasizes the CSU politician. To make it as commonplace as the cell phone itself, “we’re simplifying identification on the Internet – without compromising on security,” praised Seehofer. “In the future, every citizen will be able to save their online ID directly on their smartphone.” “In the future, online identification will be possible directly in the device – without the identification card,” they say. The Optimos 2.0 project funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics is known so far. The ID data is to be integrated into a security chip in the smartphone. So far, only one manufacturer has supported the project with Samsung.

The application options for online ID cards are also increasing rapidly, assures the interior department. The federal and state governments worked together on the basis of the Online Access Act to ensure that the authorities offer more digital services. For “legally compliant customer identification”, more and more companies have also accepted the eID. Anyone who buys a SIM card or eSIM, for example, has to identify themselves to the mobile phone provider. With the online ID card this is “done within seconds” on the Internet.

From January onwards, EU citizens will have the eID card with online ID card. Citizens of third countries can also use an eID with their electronic residence permit. In order to promote the function, the Ministry of the Interior has also had the identity card portal revised. From Monday onwards, interviews about online identification with representatives of companies and authorities will be published there every day for a week.

(mho)