Called the European Digital Identity Wallet, the app would store electronic forms of identification and other official documents – including driver’s licenses, prescriptions, and school diplomas – and allow users to access public or private services both online and offline. Accordingly, the app can be potentially used to open bank accounts, sign apartment leases, enrol in universities as well as rent a car at an airport while skipping the usual wait. At nightclubs, people wanting to enter can simply show the app to security guards to verify their ages.
— Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) June 3, 2021 Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s executive vice president for digital, said the proposed app “will enable us to do in any member state as we do at home without any extra cost and fewer hurdles.” According to the EU Commission, the wallet will be available to all EU residents, but it won’t be compulsory. Even so, dominant online platforms would be required to accept the wallet – the EU has been trying to curb the power of big tech companies, especially in regards to their control of user data. (Source: Associated Press. Image: Margrethe Vestager / Twitter.)
