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Digital identities

What Dr. Dr. Money says
Fingerprint scanning from finger. Technology, security and biometric concept.
Who am I on the Internet?
As long as you're only online for fun, a username and password are enough. You can usually come up with both yourself. But as soon as money is involved, you have to prove somehow who you really are. Do you know how many accounts you have? Any bet: probably not. Hardly anyone keeps track of where they have logged in and what their password is. In a study, Oxford University found that a quarter of all people forget their password at least once a day.

Great idea: One login for many accounts

How great would it be to have a password that works (almost) everywhere? That's what Google and Facebook thought, for example. Maybe you already have an account with a website where you had the option of registering with Google or Facebook with a single click of the mouse (instead of laboriously filling out a form). What Google and Facebook are offering is called an “Identity Ecosystem”. All websites that belong to the ecosystem can run their logins via these identity providers of the respective identity ecosystem.

How secure is my personal data?

It's nice of Google and Facebook to offer such a service for free, isn't it? Well, it's not entirely free. Because for the internet giants pursuing their commercial interests, their users' data is a valuable commodity. Privacy advocates have serious concerns about handing over digital identities to these large US companies. In practice, an identity that you create on Google isn't worth much either. You can still claim that your real name is Susi Sorglos or Hugo Herrlich, according to the old motto “On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog”. For many services that you might want to use online in the course of your life, that's not enough.

Forgery-proof master key for online life

A solid digital identity is like a master key - for music services, streaming services and even for official channels and banking transactions. It must therefore be as forgery-proof as your passport or ID card. Your digital identity must also be technically secured so that criminals have no chance of hacking into your accounts or ordering online at your expense.

The bank needs to know who you are

Of course, it's different if you want to transfer money from your bank account via your cell phone than if you post in a forum. A bank has to be 100% sure that it really is you. Otherwise, anyone could come along and simply help themselves to your bank account. But there is another reason why the bank absolutely needs to know who you are. This is prescribed by the Money Laundering Act (GwG). The principle is called “Know your customer” (KYC). The bank must establish your identity beyond doubt: You cannot open an account without an official photo ID. Only after this identity check will you receive a login for the bank's online services. This is also a digital identity. And one that is verified (checked) - unlike a Google or Facebook account. You also need such a verified digital identity, for example, if you want to take out certain insurance policies or a cell phone contract online. It would therefore be practical if you had an app with which you could prove who you are “officially certified” at any time. In other words, a digital identity.

Estonia: Babies already have a digital identity

In Austria, there is an initial approach to a digital identity with the cell phone signature, but this has not yet really caught on. The situation is different in Estonia. There, babies are assigned an eleven-digit code immediately after birth, which accompanies them throughout their lives - whether on a printed ID card or as an ID for their digital identity.
Estonia
In Estonia, a cell phone is as valuable as an official ID card. Apart from getting married, you can do pretty much everything digitally in this Baltic state. The state and its citizens are digitally connected, but the state does not control the data. Estonia uses a blockchain system to manage and store digital identities. This means that the data is not stored centrally by the government, but decentrally on many laptops and cell phones. Perhaps take three minutes to read the article 'What is blockchain?

Self-determined digital identity

According to the principle of self-determination, each person can decide for themselves which data they pass on for which purposes. If you buy shares with your digital identity, the bank needs your account number, but not your driver's license number. If you have a driver's license check, your account number is none of the police's business.
China
In China, the government uses digital identities in a completely different way to Estonia. Anyone who buys a cell phone there must have their face scanned. The cell phone number and the unmistakable face thus become one unit, which is stored on government servers along with a lot of other data.
This makes it relatively easy to be identified everywhere - even in a crowd. You can't register anywhere without a cell phone number, not even on the Alibaba shopping portal or on blogs. In China, official identity and digital identity are supposed to be the same. This means there is total control: over everything people post, buy or look at, over every place they go. Nobody should have this power over personal data in the liberal states of the EU - no institution, no government and no US internet giant.
Digital identities

What Dr. Dr. Money says

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