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from the all-the-eggs-in-one-basket dept.
Estonia will become the first country in the world to offer “e-residency” for foreigners. So what does this mean and how does it work?
Basically e-residency means a state-sanctioned authentication process. According to the article, “The card is an opportunity for people whose country of residence does not offer them a strong digital identity." It is especially useful for entrepreneurs and others who already have some relationship to Estonia. The e-residency project builds on top of the existing Estonian national ID card infrastructure, which is already widely used in Estonia. Each e-resident will get an electronic card similar to the Estonian ID card, though without a photo or fingerprints as these cards are meant for electronic use only. The card can be used for accessing a multitude of public and private electronic services which require authentication, like online banking or founding a company in Estonia. Some services extend the borders of Estonia, for example digital signatures will be legally valid in the whole European Union.
The card can be used from all over the world, but the applicant must be physically present in Estonia at least once, to verify his or her identity. There are also background checks involved and the authorities can cancel the e-residency at any moment without explanations if there is a suspicion of fraud. This seems reasonable as carrying out any investigations in foreign countries would be next to impossible.
Issuing the e-resident digital identity will start by the end of 2014.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 26 2014, @05:26PM
Now a days ID cars should be equipped with some small prongs attached to the card that you simply stick on a scanner and it has high, digitally signed, resolution of the person's pictures (from different angles), name, height, and other information (and of course the keys should have expiration dates and the government should create new keys every once in a while). These things are dirt cheap. Heck, the cost of a 16 - 32 Gb microSD card is (or was) $2 to $4 (don't confuse cost with price, I know the cost). These things are dirt cheap and an ID card can easily have a readable chip with lots of data on it.
(Score: 2) by Daiv on Wednesday November 26 2014, @06:52PM
Says the Anonymous Coward
(Score: 2) by CRCulver on Wednesday November 26 2014, @08:35PM
While storage might be dirt cheap, making a durable plug might prove a considerable expense. I don't think you really understand how much abuse ID documents are subject to. My passport might have a biometic chip in it somewhere, but it's become discoloured (and possibly a little moldy) due to sweat (passports are often carried in round-the-neck pouches on blistering hot days) and the image on the front cover has become almost entirely effaced. If it had any external contacts, I'm sure they would have become damaged within weeks of issuance. Already it's fairly common across the consumer population for the chips on bank cards to become smuged and dirty, and it's impossible to get it to register in payment terminals, why face the same frustration with government ID?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 27 2014, @08:31AM
Ummm, an ID card already has your picture and basic info on it. Why would you need to store that inside a chip of any kind?
Anyway, Estonian id cards already have a chip with your encryption certificates on it which you can renew anytime you want and the keys can be changed anytime as well. There are 2 keys, one to login to things and another to add your signature to things. Everything is obviously done online or through their software, no need to actually get out of your basement. Oh and if you use a card reader, you can pull the picture and basic info from the card already - no need for gigs of storage on the thing itself.