Abstract
As online services become more and more widely used, and as the exchanges of personal data become more and more widespread, electronic identification appears to be a key function for the security of the process and for the protection of privacy. It is the sole means of ensuring only authorized people have access to the data. In France and throughout Europe, e-government services, as well as private services, already use different means of electronic identification. Among the different technical solutions stand the electronic identity card: around 20 million eID cards have already been issued in Europe. The question of their interoperability is now open, in order that all European citizens may access the e-services of any Member State. With the development of electronic administration comes the need for the citizen to be able to prove his or her identity. This is essential if the citizen wants access to her personal data or administrative files, or if he wants to claim a right attached to his very identity. On the other hand, administrations have the obligation to ensure the personal data they store are not displayed to people who are not entitled to see them. They also have the need to detect fraudsters. Electronic identification, which is the ability to prove someone’s identity on the Internet, thus becomes a central matter.
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Notes
- 1.
Among them Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Italy, and Spain, in addition to the United Kingdom since the passing of the Identity Cards Act of 30 March 2006.
- 2.
The term “authentication” is used from a technical standpoint to indicate a procedure for proving a person’s identity. However, its use is incorrect in the legal context, where the term “identification” is preferred.
- 3.
The French Ministry of Finance provides each taxpayer with a downloadable electronic certificate free of charge. In 2007, 7.4 million electronic income tax returns were filed, a number sharply larger than the previous year.
- 4.
It is shared by several rights holders in the same family and moreover, given that it has no photograph, it can easily be used fraudulently by uninsured third parties if it is stolen or as part of a scheme for illegal trafficking; in this case, its main benefit for those defrauding the system is not so much the reimbursement but the possibility of access to healthcare free of charge.
- 5.
This is possible not only internally in hospitals but also, as in the case of certain establishments in the United States, between a medical practitioner and the pharmacy closest to the home of the patient.
- 6.
For more details see [MAT03].
- 7.
For more details see [ MCG06 ].
- 8.
How many people still use their name as a password, or their birthday as a security code?
- 9.
The first attempt at fraud of this type in France, in 2005, met with very little success: it consisted of an email in English addressed simultaneously to customers of four high-street banks (“Dear bank A/bank B/bank C/bank D customer…”), two points that naturally helped arouse suspicion in the minds of the customers concerned. In February 2006, a double phishing campaign targeting customers of the Crédit Lyonnais led to the temporary closure of this online banking service. The BNP was also targeted a few weeks later. This illustrates the negative impact phishing can have on online services.
- 10.
Falsification: fraudulent alteration of otherwise authentic documents.
- 11.
Counterfeiting: the creation of documents that are not authentic.
- 12.
For more details see [MAT07].
- 13.
European Council regulation 2252/2004 of 13 December 2004.
- 14.
Work done by the European Council and the Commission for the definition of minimum standards applicable in all Member States on a voluntary basis.
- 15.
Council of Europe, Consultative Committee of the Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data, Progress report on the application of the principles of Convention 108 to the collection and processing of biometric data, T-PD (2005) BIOM E, 2–4 February 2005, § 23 and 21.
- 16.
André Santini, at the time Mayor of Issy-les-Moulineaux, and since 2007 Minister of Civil Service, in an interview given to Acteurs Publics no. 16 in September 2005.
- 17.
Similarly, an opinion poll conducted in 2002 on behalf of the FDI showed that 73% of respondents favoured the concept of an electronic identity card enabling official formalities to be carried out on the Internet.
- 18.
As in Portugal, for example.
- 19.
As in Belgium or in Estonia, for example.
- 20.
An example: Claudine Dardy, lecturer in sociology at the University of Paris XII: “The body becomes an object to be cut up and parcelled out in chips” [FDI05], page 73.
- 21.
An example: Alain Damasio, a writer: “Identity per se does not exist […]. We do not suffer from doubt as to identity. What we do suffer from is excessive assignment of individual identity […]. Offering each citizen the possibility of doubling, of multiplying his or her approaches to personal identity in the contexts they are led to frequent, surely this amounts ultimately to offering them an opportunity for mobility, for vitality in relationships with others that would be hobbled by an identity card?” [FDI05], page 26.
- 22.
Pierre Piazza, researcher at INHES [FDI05], page 6.
- 23.
Idem.
- 24.
On this topic see in particular [CDG04]: some in a secondary school where a hand-shaped reader was installed were afraid of being “eaten” by the machine.
- 25.
[FDI05], page 67.
- 26.
For example, a national daily newspaper reported that the chairman of a respectable not-for-profit French association that has existed for over a century had denounced the project, because it would, according to him, “make it compulsory to declare all changes of address.” In fact, given that no such provision had ever been included, one might ask whether the journalist misreported what had been said or whether such a statement had actually been made. If the latter were true, at best the chairman concerned had manifestly not read the documentation. And one could add that such an obligation exists in many European democracies without threat to citizens’ rights.
- 27.
U.K. Presidency of the E.U., Ministerial Declaration approved unanimously on 24 November 2005, Manchester, United Kingdom.
- 28.
[AFN08].
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Glossary
- Certificate
-
In the case of electronic identification, this is a public electronic document that cannot be falsified and which guarantees the identity of the holder of a tool, an electronic identity card, for example.
- Electronic identification
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A functionality that allows an Internet user wishing to do so to authenticate his identity when logging on to the Internet, a local area network, or a computer. According to the desired level of security, proof of identity can be based on the user’s personal knowledge (e.g., a security code), something she possesses (e.g., a smartcard), a personal characteristic (e.g., fingerprints), or even a combination of all three.
- Electronic identity card
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Although there are variants in different countries, it is possible to say that it is an identity card of traditional type in which the hardcopy information has been transposed onto a chip for the purposes of verification by law enforcement personnel (depending on the country concerned, a photograph and fingerprints may or may not be stored on the chip), and which also contains electronic keys and certificates for use with online services.
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Mattatia, F. (2011). An Overview of Some Electronic Identification Use Cases in Europe. In: Assar, S., Boughzala, I., Boydens, I. (eds) Practical Studies in E-Government. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7533-1_5
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