German health insurance firm BARMER has commissioned T-Systems and Verimi to provide and manage the digital identities of its 8.7 million policyholders. The contract has a term of seven years, and the companies have not disclosed the contract value.

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.

Sri Lanka’s unique digital ID project, prepared jointly by the Sri Lanka Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) and the Department of Registration of Persons, is about to go live, according to news reports in the country.

Does the track record of some firms who capture peoples’ facial images without their consent make it impossible for facial recognition to get a fair hearing in the court of public opinion – or are there deeper issues concerning the technology?

Whilst pockets of personally identifiable information exist in all countries’ civil registries, some in physical documents but increasingly in digital records, not all countries are at the same stage of establishing a national digital identity.

In this next episode of the occasional series of country profiles, Francis Tuffy took on the hard task of visiting the beautiful Principality of Monaco to find out about the government’s strategy for connected digital identity… and conclude some unfinished business.

For many years, the ID and secure document industry has understood the potential that universal citizen identity would have for increasing worldwide economic development. And now, a WEF think-tank has produced a 46-page report illustrating the potential benefit of a worldwide unifying digital ID data management policy.

An article in the South China Morning Post reports that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has revealed that the country is planning to launch a digital national ID card before the end of the year.

As the EU starts to trial aspects of the European Digital Identity through large-scale pilots to test the deployment of the European Digital Identity Wallet, the UK is planning its own Office for Digital Identities.

In its June 2021 edition, ID & Secure Document News™ reported that the European Commission was promoting its proposal for a regulation that would amend the electronic identification, authentication and trust services (eIDAS) regulation and establish a framework for a European Digital Identity.