It won't be long before we can carry our ID on our cell phone.
This has been advanced this week by the Police, who confirmed that they are working on an application that, through a QR code, will allow citizens to officially identify themselves without carrying physical documents with them.
The Minister of Digital Transformation and Public Function, José Luis Escrivá, for his part, announced on Tuesday that the Government is already working on an application that will be used to verify the age of those who want to access pornographic content.
What does DNI 4.0 have to do with the anti-porn
app
?
Both projects share the same technology: the single European digital identity, which in turn is developed in the eIDAS2 Regulation (acronym for electronic identification, authentication and trust services).
The objective of this standard is to promote secure digital interactions of personal information in the EU Member States, so that interested parties do not have to continually fill out forms every time they complete a bureaucratic procedure.
Brussels wants us to be able to do everything from our mobile.
“This is a key advance for the European Union to be a benchmark in the digital field, protecting our democratic rights and values,” said Nadia Calviño, then vice president of the Government, who led the agreement in November, when the agreement on the regulation was closed. final negotiation when holding the European presidency.
How does this digital identity work?
Who can use it?
Is it safe?
These are some of the questions raised by technology that will change the way bureaucratic procedures are carried out.
Why a European digital identity?
Last decade, the EU set out to develop a secure infrastructure that would allow it to operate digitally.
Just as many citizens have a digital wallet on their mobile phone with credit cards, plane tickets or movie tickets, in Brussels it was intended that the same could be done with the DNI, passport, driving license, medical prescriptions or titles academics, so that official procedures could be arranged with a couple of clicks.
The European digital wallet, the wallet in which the documents associated with the European digital identity are housed, will be accepted in all EU countries.
What data is shared?
One of the peculiarities of the European digital wallet is that the user will be able to decide each time what data they share.
For example, if you only need to prove that you are of legal age, it will be enough to show one of the DNI data (year of birth), but not the rest of what that document contains (full name, DNI number, address, etc).
Each time data is provided through the European digital wallet, the data subject must select exactly what information they want to share.
Or, if he receives a request for data, he may or may not agree to provide it.
What can be done with it?
The list of utilities is long.
In addition to identifying themselves, users will be able to contract services and insurance, open bank accounts, formalize university registrations, carry out tax procedures or sign official documents.
The Government of Spain wants to take advantage of this technology for the mechanism to control the age at which porn is accessed.
Who develops it?
Each Member State works on its own digital identity.
The eIDAS regulation provides the guidelines to harmonize these developments, so that they are interoperable in all countries.
Furthermore, the Commission is developing a prototype of a single digital wallet based on the technical specifications established by Brussels that will be available to countries that request it.
When will the European digital wallet be launched?
The eIDAS2 regulation has already been approved by the European Parliament and is about to get the green light from the Council (expected to happen at the end of this month).
As soon as it comes into force, each Member State must develop its digital certificates and documents to the extent of its possibilities.
Two years are given from the approval of the Regulation (2026) for the European digital wallet to be mandatory.
According to sources in the sector, the Government of Spain wants to get ahead of that deadline and have the digital identity ready this year.
It can be used in national territory: in order to manage the digital wallet in the rest of the countries, they must have it implemented.
At the moment, the miDGT platform already allows you to carry your driving license on your mobile phone.
What does this have to do with porn?
The Government wants to use the European digital identity to introduce a specific certificate of majority, a use case not initially contemplated in the eIDAS2 project.
With this function active, it will be possible to establish that pornographic content portals only show them to those who prove to be 18 or older.
It is safe?
The wallets will be certified “in accordance with the strictest security standards,” says the Commission's website.
Initially, each Member State will be responsible for protecting the portfolios on its territory;
When the system is fully operational, the EU will take care of it.
The technical specifications of the wallet have been developed with a group of experts and have chosen the highest security standards available.
Citizens will be able to review the data that has been taken from their wallet and file complaints if necessary.
However, cybersecurity experts often say that the only secure documents are those that are not digitized.
An open letter signed in November by more than 500 European scientists and NGOs warned that eIDAS2 “will not lead to adequate technological safeguards for citizens and businesses, as intended.
In fact, it is very likely to result in less security for everyone.”
The regulations, they say, in practice empower the Member States, as holders of the system's cryptographic keys, to intercept the online traffic of any citizen.
It would also allow them to see citizens' activity records, so they could access more information than they have been authorized to manage.
At the moment, these issues have not been resolved.
“The privacy of the European digital wallet is not very clear,” says Carmela Troncoso, a specialist at the Federal Polytechnic University of Lausanne.
“When digital wallets or specific apps are available, we will be able to study them and say something about them,” says Juan Tapiador, professor of Computer Science at the Carlos III University of Madrid.
Who can use it?
Citizens who want can have a digital wallet.
It's not mandatory.
It can also be used to access private services, although only large platforms (those regulated by the Digital Services Law: from Amazon, Google or Instagram to Booking or Zalando) are required to recognize the digital wallet to authenticate their clients. .
Payments, in any case, must be channeled through this means, which in practice makes it essential for all companies.
What if I don't have a cell phone or connection?
The use of the European identity and digital wallet is not mandatory.
But if its use becomes popular, it could represent an element of inequality for those who do not have a mobile phone (in Spain, 4% of citizens) or those who navigate the digital environment clumsily.
Regional inequalities can also be generated.
“In the best case scenario, the Commission foresees 80% coverage of the digital portfolio by 2030, and this is already optimistic.
That means that at least one in five people will not have access to it, which will disproportionately affect those already marginalized by society,” says Ella Jakubowska, senior policy advisor at the European Digital Rights platform.
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