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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Apple is making US states foot part of the bill and provide customer support for its plan to turn iPhones into digital identification cards.

It is inevitable that as we witness a move from physical to digital assertion of an identity to gain access to financial, retail and payment services we should see an attendant rise in the number and types of digital identity scams.

The move to assert digital identities in instances when previously a person (or persons) would need to be present has undoubtedly brought convenience and speed to executing many legal, travel and governmental transactions.

Eftpos (electronic funds transfer at the point of sale) has become the first accredited non-government operator of a digital identity exchange under the Australian federal government's Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF).