Authentication, security: why La Poste invites you to create ... your digital identity

But where did your essential tax number go for your online tax return? Where am I with my retirement points or my training rights? How to quickly calculate my family quotient? So many questions that subsequently require time-consuming steps and can turn into a puzzle. Not to mention that precious passwords are sometimes not found when you haven't simply lost or lost them. La Poste - which has taken a small step ahead of the competition in the field - is offering from Monday to simplify your life by creating your digital identity, a sort of digital portfolio based on the technology of the Thales group.

Behind this abstruse term hides one of the big challenges of the digitization of everyday life.

"It is both a solution and a universal key to enter websites securely without having to enter passwords", summarizes Sylvain Coliche, director of digital identity at La Poste.

The latter obtained from the National Information Systems Security Agency (Anssi), the guardian of national IT security, the "substantial" level of security which allows it to embark on the creation of digital identities. in large scale.

For the moment, La Poste is the only one in France to have been awarded this label in this niche.

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To dive into the future, which is already the present of 300,000 pioneers in France who have created their account, you will need to bring an identity document or a residence permit for more than 5 years. Once your details have been entered by a account manager, sworn agent, your digital identity is in place. From then on, secure browsing is available to you. “Who hasn't dreamed of being able to do everything online without standing in line for two hours or moving around,” asks Sylvain Coliche. With this project, the aim is to allow the customer to achieve in a secure digital universe with a unique identifier what he previously achieved in real life. "

Once your digital identity has been created in a post office or remotely - a free process - a myriad of labeled websites and administrative procedures are available to you.

More than 900 sites to be exact are accessible via the France Connect button, a sort of gateway to surfing the web securely while being identified.

If France Connect acts as a portal, the digital identity would be the key.

In order to make browsing more secure, once the digital identity button is activated on France Connect, a PIN code will then be sent to each user's mobile phone to authenticate.

The ambition: create 10 million accounts within four years

"The possibilities given by digital identity are endless," assures Sylvain Coliche, whose company is targeting 10 million accounts in four years.

Take the case of a student, he will be able to register for exams, find out his driving license results, recover his diplomas or register for the first time on the electoral roll.

And even pay his energy bills.

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While navigation mainly concerns public service sites (taxes, CAF, health insurance, etc.), the private sector should quickly join the movement.

This will then allow La Poste to make its tool profitable.

In the same way as with the digital safe called Digiposte, the service is free for individuals but paying for businesses.

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Thanks to the digital identity, it is already possible to make medical appointments using your digital identity on the Medi'Clic site or to report the fraudulent use of your bank card.

All aspects of daily life are concerned.

For the moment, users are not aware of the need to create their digital identity, which specialists qualify as a “latent need”.

"But in five years, everyone will know", prophesies Sylvain Coliche.

Last week, the European Union urged its members to move quickly to establish a continent-wide digital identity. The idea would be to make the national systems of the 27 members interoperable by 2023. A free service, accessible to all but not compulsory.