Countries around the world are implementing digital solutions for identifying their citizens and residents. However, the benefits of using national digital identification systems are also met with risks. In this post, we will discuss forms of identification look like, and pose questions around opportunities and pitfalls of its use.
What is Identity?
First of all, we need to discuss the differences between identification and identity. Stanford researchers [1] defines identity as “personal characteristics or attributes that cannot naturally be expressed in terms of a social category” that make a person or group. In contrast, identification is a document that is issued by a government and can prove a person’s identity [2]. Importantly, identification documents are not created by people themselves, but instead are issued by a country or institution that also provides the identity of which the identification is tied to. An example of an identification would be a passport, which serves as proof that a person is a national of the country issuing the passport.
Discrepancies between identities proclaimed by identification and the identity held by an individual may cause frustration and unnecessary obstacles. Consider this thought experiment: what would you do if one day you received in the mail a passport for a country you do not belong to? How does the identity asserted by the passport impact your true identity? A related example happened to a British woman, who received a passport that had the wrong photograph associated with her name [3]. Besides putting additional stress on her travel plans, the situation raised questions about the safety of her personal information.
What is a National Digital Identification?
In its simplest form, a digital identification could consist of a computer file containing unique identifiers, for example, a Social Security Number (SSN) in the the United States, corresponding to each citizen. That is, it is not the physical artifacts that permit authentication, such as an ID card or passport, but the data itself that makes up a person’s national digital identity. Importantly, this data may impact their lives if it is needed to transact services from a national body.
Elements of a national digital identification may include:
- text (e.g. name, SSN, date of birth)
- audio (e.g. voice samples)
- biometric data (e.g. fingerprints, blood sample, iris sample, hair sample)
- tokenized representations (e.g. passport, ID chip card)
Aspects of life that a national digital identification may impact include:
- travel
- financial services
- healthcare
- telecommunications
- participation in election voting
Here are some examples of what it looks like in different countries:
Estonia
Estonia [4] has one of the most integrated national digital identification systems in the world. Citizens are able to use tokens such as their mobile device to authenticate their identity for services, like nationalized health insurance and online banking. The country also allows citizens to vote and declare taxes online. In 2017, a vulnerability in the cryptography of the Estonian digital identification system allowed for the reverse engineering of individual’s private keys using intercepted public keys [5]. This lead to the compromise of about 750,000 digital identities to potential misuse. Since then, the affected ID cards were updated with new credentials.
China
Similar to Estonia, China also has a very integrated national digital identification system. It’s system is involved in telecommunications, travel, banking, and lodging. Every citizen is required to apply for a Resident Identity Card when they are 16 years old, which is issued by the country’s Public Security Bureau [6]. China is also working on implementing the national identification system on mobile phones to transition away from offline ID cards. In 2017, China updated their policy of “real-name registration”, which requires the linking of users’ internet accounts with their Resident Identity Cards in order to post comments online [7].
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom implemented a digital identification system for citizens to access government services online in 2016, known as GOV.UK Verify [8]. It enabled citizens to receive services such as claiming tax refunds, receiving Universal Credit benefits, checking pensions, and signing mortgages. The system partners with the country’s financial institutions to facilitate identity management and account creation, and citizens sign in via these “certified companies” to access the e-government portal [9].
Singapore
Singapore’s national identification involves a compulsory National Registration Identity Card for citizens and permanent residents [10]. Like China and Estonia, Singaporean citizens can also use their mobile phones as a token to authenticate their identity for government services online. Currently, it operates a program called “MyInfo,” which enables citizens to view the data the government has on file about income, licenses, property, and education [11]. Singapore plans to roll out a “National Digital Identity System” in 2020, which aims to “provide users
with a single digital identity to transact with both the Government and private sector” [12].

List of Information Available in MyInfo – from MyInfo. Used under the Fair Dealing Exception in the Canadian Copyright Act, s.29
Canada
Lastly, the digital identity of citizens in Canada is currently distributed across several systems. For example, on the federal level, residents are able to view personal income tax and benefit information through the Canadian Revenue Agency’s MyAccount portal [13], and can login to a provincial identity system to manage their driver’s license [14]. There have been proposals within the country for the additional development of a Canadian national digital identity by groups such as the Canadian Bankers’ Association [15].
How does national digital identification look like in your country? What is the scope of the data that is part of your national digital identity? You can share and discuss national digital identities in the comment section below.
In the next section of this article, we will look at potential benefits and risks for citizens enrolled in national identity programs.
Edited by: Monique Rodrigues
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