Veridos Sees the Road Ahead

The future of sovereign identity documents such as ID cards, passports and driving licences is virtual – according to leading provider of integrated identity solutions, Veridos. However, there are still some key challenges to overcome, with IDs remaining ‘phygital’ for the time being.

ID cards, passports and driving licences are increasingly phygital across much of the world. This sees physical and digital components combined with documents containing electronic chips that store data identifying their holders. Unlike purely physical ones, phygital IDs have one key advantage: data that establishes a citizen’s identity can be transferred to digital platforms without friction. Thus, they are indispensable for efficient eGovernment processes.

At the recent Optical & Digital Document Security conference in Vienna (11–13 April), Xavier Prost expanded on this theme in his paper ‘Phygital IDs and the Vision and Implementation of a Federated eGovernment Ecosystem’ in which he set out the objectives and scope of the European GAIA-X project.

The project was initiated to enable secure, open and sovereign use of data to allow self-determined decisions to be made on how and where data is stored, processed and used within the data infrastructure.

To advance eGovernment processes, the next logical step, according to an article on the Identity Week website, is to further digitise IDs – that means their virtualisation for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. However, to get to that point, states, international organisations and systems providers have to overcome a range of challenges. Veridos explained the most important ones: 

1. Develop new security solutions. Phygital IDs contain numerous physical security elements such as a surface that can be felt in relief, holographic portraits or watermarks. With virtual documents, these features are omitted, creating a gap that must be closed by new security solutions.

2. Build state-wide infrastructures. In order to use virtualised documents effectively, states need complete IT infrastructures throughout the country. This includes systems for the high-performance processing of large amounts of data. These are necessary, for example, for cross-border authentication of virtual identities, ie. when a citizen travels internationally; or mobile solutions that enable citizens to use their virtual IDs for digital services in a legally secure manner.

3. Define international standards. International standards are needed for the smooth cross-border use of virtual IDs. Organisations such as the ICAO, a specialised agency of the United Nations, are already working on specifications for the harmonisation and standardisation of such IDs.

4. Design concepts for citizens’ data sovereignty. A key factor in the acceptance of virtual IDs by citizens will be the handling of their data. National authorities should design solutions that give citizens sovereignty over their data – for example, by allowing them to decide on a case-by-case basis what information they want to release. Such concepts can be realised by the decentralisation of IDs.

5. Design user-friendly systems. In addition to the documents themselves, the goal is also to digitise the associated processes around application and issuance as consistently as possible. Since citizens usually only need new IDs at intervals of several years, they often do not become familiar with the digital systems. These systems must therefore be as intuitive to use as possible.

‘The future of IDs will become more and more virtual, there is no doubt about that,’ explained Marc-Julian Siewert, CEO at Veridos.

‘There will even be some outliers, especially countries that do not yet have phygital IDs, will simply skip this step. But the majority of the world will still have phygital IDs for the next ten years. Countries need a lot of patience to take the next step towards completely digitised documents, but it will be worth it. After all, they can take state-citizen communication and, consequently, the efficiency of public administration to a whole new level.’