After TousAntiCovid, the government is preparing to launch a new official application. A new decree published on Tuesday, April 26 authorizes the creation of a new system called the Digital Identity Guarantee Service or SGIN. This text provides in particular for the development of a mobile application, which will be used to scan information from the new biometric identity card and use it to easily connect to public and private services.
As you may know, France has adopted since August 2021 a brand new biometric identity card. It comes to replace the plastic identity cards that we all know. In addition to sporting a more compact credit card format, this digital identity card offers much more effective protection against forgery and identity theft. To do this, it embeds several security systems such as:
- A CEV (visible electronic seal), an electronic signature to guarantee the authenticity of the document
- An electronic chip that contains all of your biometric data (such as surname, first name, date of birth, address, etc.)
- A secure card background and a holographic device to prevent counterfeiting
The ultimate goal is to achieve online administrative procedures without having to go to the town hall or to another institution. And precisely, the government has just signed a text this Tuesday, April 26, 2022 which goes in this direction. This measure authorizes the creation of a system called Guaranteed Digital Identity Service or SGIN.
An app to scan your biometric data
The text provides in particular for the creation of a new mobile app which will allow the information contained in the electronic chip of your digital identity card to be scanned in order to be used for connect to public and private services. To do this, you will need to have a smartphone with an NFC chip. This is the same chip that you use for your contactless payments with your smartphone.
As the government specifies, this dedicated app will be able to process certain personal data, such as surname/first name, date of birth, address, photo or email and postal address. On the other hand, she will not have access to the digitized fingerprints. We do not yet know in detail the scope of this app, but we suspect thatit can be used for online identificationin particular to prevent access to pornographic sites for minors for example.
According to the decree, this app “allows the user, in particular, to generate electronic certificates containing only the identity attributes which he considers necessary to transmit to third parties of his choice”. In other words, the user should be free to transfer certain information only to prove his majority or other (date of birth only for example).
Source : Legifrance
