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| Smarticware Services/Offerings |
| Governmental Chip Based ID Documents |
Typical governments issued ID documents are
a) ePassports
b) National ID cards
c) Driving licenses
d) Health cards
e) Governmental eIDs(emerging)
The most common ones are passports and driver's licenses and these documents/cards also work internationally. National ID cards and health cards are normally only valid within one country. In order to get health services abroad (within the insurance system) additional documents are needed to show that you have a health insurance. The passport and the driver's license can in most countries also be used as a national ID card.
This system has worked fine for years. However, the situation is changing rapidly because of higher security requirements in general in the society and the introduction of personal eServices from the public administrations (local, regional and national).
Governments are now working on new types of passports, driver's licenses, national ID cards and health cards which besides the analogue information also will include electronic information. This is done by including a digital chip in the documents/cards. This chip holds information about the holder of the card and other relevant information. If very high security is needed the chip may also hold biometric information which is valid for ID documents used when traveling internationally e.g passports.
The Schengen area does not require any passports when passing internal boarders. However, because of the higher security requirements in the society people must be able to show who they are and for that reason a credit card sized national ID card is of big interest.
According to EU directives health services in EU shall be offered to EU citizens visiting an other EU Member state on the same conditions as for the people living in that Member state. For this reason a health card which is valid through out the whole EU is of big interest
Besides the technical challenge there is a big administrative challenge because these solutions must work within the EU and in some cases globally and processes as well as the legal systems must be adapted to the new situation.
With the introduction of eGovernment and eHealth services in many EU countries people need an electronic ID (eID) in order to access personal data and to be able to sign electronically different applications/forms. This eID must be accepted by the government and have a legal binding similar to a traditional signature. Because of this the governments in many EU countries have developed PKI based eIDs and are doing pilots with these. Both soft eIDs and smart card based eIDs are considered in the different pilots going on. The administrations plans to store these eIDs in the national ID card chips. Still there is work do be done to get an eID accepted in all EU Member states.
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