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With all the (deserved) ridicule Germany gets for our failed digitalization efforts, we use public/private key pairs for our taxes, and IIRC even our national I
by Semaphor 4y ago
With all the (deserved) ridicule Germany gets for our failed digitalization efforts, we use public/private key pairs for our taxes, and IIRC even our national ID supports some PKI thing (not sure how that works exactly, never had any use for my ID’s online features, doesn’t seem widespread)
- lxgr 4y ago> not sure how that works exactly, never had any use for my ID’s online features I think that's a pretty apt summary of the state of digital ID in Germany: Commendable technical basis (with some privacy-preserving aspects too, including selective assertions, e.g. "older than 18" or "EU citizen"). When I called about actually getting such an ID card (several times) as a non-citizen, which is explicitly mentioned as a feature of the scheme, I only received the acoustic equivalent of blank stares.
- Semaphor 4y agoWhen my wife got her temporary residence permit in 2018, it came with exactly the same online features as our national ID card. Yours might have been too old.
- lxgr 4y agoEU citizens don't need (and in fact can't get) a permanent residency card. For that reason, Germany introduced a "non-identity" (i.e. not doubling as a photo ID) e-signature card in 2021, but apparently almost nobody is requesting it, so most administrative offices don't know how to issue one...
- Semaphor 4y agoOh wow, that sounds like quite the oversight. I’m fully of the opinion that my fellow Europeans should be allowed to have a digital ID that they can’t use anywhere ;)