OPINION: Sweden needs to clear up its messy digital ID system
The recent revelation by The Local that it is getting harder for non-Swedes to access the most widely used form of digital ID raises broader questions about the country’s attitude to digitalization, argues David Crouch.
Shop online, pay tax or bills, access healthcare or social services, check your bank balance or pension savings, sign official documents – for all of these in Sweden you need a digital ID on your mobile phone. So it is frustrating to learn that recent rule changes have made it harder for non-Swedes to access Bank ID, the most widely used digital ID service.
As always, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. This problem for non-Swedes follows a tightening of the rules to improve security and crack down on identity fraud.
But it comes at a moment when Sweden is under pressure to open up its services to non-Swedes, based on digital ID technology. Indeed, Swedish citizens themselves will soon begin to be able to access public services across the EU using their Swedish digital IDs.
This is part of a bigger picture in which the European Union is seeking to sweep away barriers to cross-border use of electronic identification, enabling access to online services offered anywhere within the 27 member states. The plan envisages 80 percent of EU citizens using digital ID by 2030.
This would mean that government agencies and private-sector providers such as banks and phone operators would have to recognise digital ID as proof of identity across the bloc. Digital ID would provide a common foundation for making secure electronic transactions. Within as little as 18 months, Europeans may no longer need physical credentials to travel, work, access services and live anywhere else in the bloc.
The latest step is to create an “EU Digital Identity Wallet” that citizens can download to their phone. Sweden, Spain and Finland are leading a consortium to bid for up to €37 million of cash for a large-scale pilot project linking the various electronic IDs operated in EU member states to the wallet app. The transformation promised by this development is also full of potential for Sweden’s innovative financial technology (fintech) sector, which boasts big names such as Klarna and iZettle.
So how is it that Sweden can position itself as a leading player in this process, while at the same time making it harder for non-Swedes to access Bank ID? Why can Swedes go abroad and use their digital IDs, while non-Swedes struggle to get a digital ID in Sweden?
Part of the problem is that so many agencies issue means of identification in Sweden. A government inquiry in 2019 found that there were 13 such bodies, and it proposed slashing the number to only two. It also suggested a state-run electronic ID system, in addition to the privately-owned ones that exist today, to come into force in January this year.
But the process started by this inquiry seems to have ground to a halt.
With the EU accelerating its shift towards a common electronic ID platform, this could become a serious problem for Sweden. In January, Sweden’s Agency for Digital Government (DIGG) demanded that a state-run e-identification should be “urgently developed” to strengthen Sweden’s opportunities abroad and to form the basis for the digital wallet.
DIGG says that Swedish digital wallets should be issued partly by the state and partly by the private sector, in order “to take advantage of innovation in the field”. And indeed, private sector development of digital ID has served Sweden well up to now. BankID is widely used and enjoys a high level of trust.
But there appears to be a reluctance for the state to take the initiative to clean up the messy ID system in Sweden and prepare the country for cross-border services accessible online.
We don’t have to look very far to find countries doing precisely this. Denmark has had a state-run electronic ID system since 2010, and is currently migrating all its 4.7 million users to a new platform developed in collaboration with the private sector. Estonians have had a state-run electronic identity system for 20 years, and has extended this service to non-residents.
“Digital services and information should be based on user needs and be accessible to everyone,” says DIGG on its website home page. “Everyone” must include non-Swedes who live in Sweden and contribute to its economy and society. The problems faced by non-Swedes in accessing services digitally point to more fundamental issues with Sweden’s approach to digitalisation, which require urgent action.
David Crouch is the author of Almost Perfekt: How Sweden Works and What Can We Learn From It. He is a freelance journalist and a lecturer in journalism at Gothenburg University.
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Shop online, pay tax or bills, access healthcare or social services, check your bank balance or pension savings, sign official documents – for all of these in Sweden you need a digital ID on your mobile phone. So it is frustrating to learn that recent rule changes have made it harder for non-Swedes to access Bank ID, the most widely used digital ID service.
As always, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. This problem for non-Swedes follows a tightening of the rules to improve security and crack down on identity fraud.
But it comes at a moment when Sweden is under pressure to open up its services to non-Swedes, based on digital ID technology. Indeed, Swedish citizens themselves will soon begin to be able to access public services across the EU using their Swedish digital IDs.
This is part of a bigger picture in which the European Union is seeking to sweep away barriers to cross-border use of electronic identification, enabling access to online services offered anywhere within the 27 member states. The plan envisages 80 percent of EU citizens using digital ID by 2030.
This would mean that government agencies and private-sector providers such as banks and phone operators would have to recognise digital ID as proof of identity across the bloc. Digital ID would provide a common foundation for making secure electronic transactions. Within as little as 18 months, Europeans may no longer need physical credentials to travel, work, access services and live anywhere else in the bloc.
The latest step is to create an “EU Digital Identity Wallet” that citizens can download to their phone. Sweden, Spain and Finland are leading a consortium to bid for up to €37 million of cash for a large-scale pilot project linking the various electronic IDs operated in EU member states to the wallet app. The transformation promised by this development is also full of potential for Sweden’s innovative financial technology (fintech) sector, which boasts big names such as Klarna and iZettle.
So how is it that Sweden can position itself as a leading player in this process, while at the same time making it harder for non-Swedes to access Bank ID? Why can Swedes go abroad and use their digital IDs, while non-Swedes struggle to get a digital ID in Sweden?
Part of the problem is that so many agencies issue means of identification in Sweden. A government inquiry in 2019 found that there were 13 such bodies, and it proposed slashing the number to only two. It also suggested a state-run electronic ID system, in addition to the privately-owned ones that exist today, to come into force in January this year.
But the process started by this inquiry seems to have ground to a halt.
With the EU accelerating its shift towards a common electronic ID platform, this could become a serious problem for Sweden. In January, Sweden’s Agency for Digital Government (DIGG) demanded that a state-run e-identification should be “urgently developed” to strengthen Sweden’s opportunities abroad and to form the basis for the digital wallet.
DIGG says that Swedish digital wallets should be issued partly by the state and partly by the private sector, in order “to take advantage of innovation in the field”. And indeed, private sector development of digital ID has served Sweden well up to now. BankID is widely used and enjoys a high level of trust.
But there appears to be a reluctance for the state to take the initiative to clean up the messy ID system in Sweden and prepare the country for cross-border services accessible online.
We don’t have to look very far to find countries doing precisely this. Denmark has had a state-run electronic ID system since 2010, and is currently migrating all its 4.7 million users to a new platform developed in collaboration with the private sector. Estonians have had a state-run electronic identity system for 20 years, and has extended this service to non-residents.
“Digital services and information should be based on user needs and be accessible to everyone,” says DIGG on its website home page. “Everyone” must include non-Swedes who live in Sweden and contribute to its economy and society. The problems faced by non-Swedes in accessing services digitally point to more fundamental issues with Sweden’s approach to digitalisation, which require urgent action.
David Crouch is the author of Almost Perfekt: How Sweden Works and What Can We Learn From It. He is a freelance journalist and a lecturer in journalism at Gothenburg University.
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