In the market for secure digital identities, private providers are competing with the state: Verimi and Yes want to replace the electronic identity card.

Digital Identity: Race for the dominance of digital identity verification Models from the north Digital storage and acceptance Three services for digital identification Together against Google and Apple Article in c’t 1 / 2021 read If you want to identify yourself in the analog world, whether at the airport, at the post office or in a bank, pull out your ID card or passport. In the online world, the situation is less clear: More and more providers are developing solutions for identification on the Internet. In the race is no longer just the federal government with the electronic identity card. Consortia from the private sector also offer digital proof of identity.

For example Verimi, a joint venture of prominent groups such as Deutsche Bank, Telekom, Samsung and Volkswagen. “We want to become the PayPal of identity,” says Verimi boss Roland Adrian in an interview with c’t. The Swiss start-up Yes, which is supported by savings banks and Volksbanks, has similar plans. “Yes can be used universally for the digital identification of natural persons”, advertises technical director Torsten Lodderstedt. And other players want to get involved, including, for example, the NetID foundation founded by RTL, ProSiebenSat.1 and United Internet.

The race is not just about how to identify yourself on the Internet will run technically in the future. But also about who controls the identity data such as the name and address of millions of people. And the question of who can sell the identification of people as a service – for example to banks or insurance companies, which for legal reasons need to know their customers exactly. Access to all contents of heise + exclusive tests, advice & background: independent, critically sound c’t, iX, Technology Review, Mac & i, Make, c’t read photography directly in the browser register once – read on all devices – can be canceled monthly first month free, then monthly 9, 95 € Weekly newsletter with personal reading recommendations from the editor-in-chief Start FREE month Start your FREE month now already subscribed to heise +?

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