6 ms·

In Germany, my ID might be a form of identification but only in association with the person in question, the ID's number or data itself is not considered identi

by tscs37 9y ago

In Germany, my ID might be a form of identification but only in association with the person in question, the ID's number or data itself is not considered identifying by a few institutions (postal service, banks, etc; you always need physical presence for identification or use post-ident) The ID is government issued, cheap to obtain in case of loss (30€ and a bit of waiting until the new one arrives) and contains a photo of you so it's of no particular value to someone who doesn't look like you. IIRC identity theft isn't a huge problem in Germany but it exists, however most credit agencies offer options to lock down or delete data concerning such theft, I haven't interacted with any of them yet though.

kuschku 9y ago
> or use post-ident Or use the eID functionality, which is growing now that the old IDs are starting to expire.
- tscs37 9y ago
  TBH, I haven't seen many websites that offer eID functionality, so I haven't bothered setting it up.
  - freeflight 9y ago
    It's certainly a weird process to witness in Germany. A couple of weeks ago I had a friend over who used my WLAN to eID for some service (i think it was pre-paid CC? Neither of us can't remember at this point) over his android phone using some "AusweisApp2". He ended up in a video chat with a lady who asked him to show his face/ID and swivel the ID in the light so she could see the reflections of the security features. I was sitting next to that whole process thinking about how difficult it would be to put on a convincing facemask and create a matching fake ID that would pass a video inspection. Shouldn't be that difficult, most certainly less difficult than trying to convince a postman in person by showing them a fake ID at an address matching the fake ID.
    - tscs37 9y ago
      It's not impossible to fake and I don't think that'll ever be the point. Rather, it's just very difficult compared to faking an SSN number on the internet. The address in this case would be difficult since a lot of institutions pull your address from the local registry, so you can't convince them to not sent stuff to any victims address unless you manage to change their address in the registry too.
    - kuschku 9y ago
      > A couple of weeks ago I had a friend over who used my WLAN to eID for some service (i think it was pre-paid CC? Neither of us can't remember at this point) over his android phone using some "AusweisApp2". Ah, that’s the system you use when you don’t have any of the new eIDs, but one of the old ones. That should be phased out by 2021
seszett 9y ago
It's similar in France. In addition, each government service uses a different ID number and is forbidden from sharing information or using another service's ID number. So you have a fiscal number for taxes, a social security number for health things, an identity card number that only has meaning with the card itself. Your private (non-healthcare) insurance, your bank, and other private institutions can issue you their own number as well (or another kind of id key) but can not share them between themselves and cannot ask you to give them numbers of unrelated services. Citizens are responsible for forwarding themselves most information between separate services when needed. In practice it makes it sometimes tedious to auth at any of these services (you have to find your number in whatever mail you received or card you got issued) but it really makes it more difficult to impersonate another citizen, as you would at most gain access to one service, and it wouldn't help you access any other.

by tscs37 9y ago

kuschku 9y ago

> or use post-ident Or use the eID functionality, which is growing now that the old IDs are starting to expire.

tscs37 9y ago
TBH, I haven't seen many websites that offer eID functionality, so I haven't bothered setting it up.
- freeflight 9y ago
  It's certainly a weird process to witness in Germany. A couple of weeks ago I had a friend over who used my WLAN to eID for some service (i think it was pre-paid CC? Neither of us can't remember at this point) over his android phone using some "AusweisApp2". He ended up in a video chat with a lady who asked him to show his face/ID and swivel the ID in the light so she could see the reflections of the security features. I was sitting next to that whole process thinking about how difficult it would be to put on a convincing facemask and create a matching fake ID that would pass a video inspection. Shouldn't be that difficult, most certainly less difficult than trying to convince a postman in person by showing them a fake ID at an address matching the fake ID.
  - tscs37 9y ago
    It's not impossible to fake and I don't think that'll ever be the point. Rather, it's just very difficult compared to faking an SSN number on the internet. The address in this case would be difficult since a lot of institutions pull your address from the local registry, so you can't convince them to not sent stuff to any victims address unless you manage to change their address in the registry too.
  - kuschku 9y ago
    > A couple of weeks ago I had a friend over who used my WLAN to eID for some service (i think it was pre-paid CC? Neither of us can't remember at this point) over his android phone using some "AusweisApp2". Ah, that’s the system you use when you don’t have any of the new eIDs, but one of the old ones. That should be phased out by 2021

seszett 9y ago

It's similar in France. In addition, each government service uses a different ID number and is forbidden from sharing information or using another service's ID number. So you have a fiscal number for taxes, a social security number for health things, an identity card number that only has meaning with the card itself. Your private (non-healthcare) insurance, your bank, and other private institutions can issue you their own number as well (or another kind of id key) but can not share them between themselves and cannot ask you to give them numbers of unrelated services. Citizens are responsible for forwarding themselves most information between separate services when needed. In practice it makes it sometimes tedious to auth at any of these services (you have to find your number in whatever mail you received or card you got issued) but it really makes it more difficult to impersonate another citizen, as you would at most gain access to one service, and it wouldn't help you access any other.