Sweden can do better than BankID – open collaboration for free e-identification

Video from the event held in June 2022 is available here:

This is an English translation of the Swedish text for the meeting invitation from https://www.dfri.se/sverige-kan-battre-an-bankid-oppen-samverkan-for-fri-e-legitimation/ and https://www.goto10.se/event/sverige-kan-battre-an-bankid-oppen-samverkan-for-fri-e-legitimation/

Meeting time: June 20, 2022, at 16:00-17:00 Swedish time.

How can Sweden get a solution for digital identity and identification that is based on open standards and is accessible for everyone? Today, the Swedish society is dependent on closed, proprietary systems owned by companies, mainly Bank-ID that is owned by the banks. Now we create a free and open solution. Welcome!

In a daily life that is increasingly digitised, we are approaching a situation where each person is forced to used closed, proprietary systems such as Bank-ID och Freja eID. These systems are owned and controlled by companies, who create them according to their business goals. For the individual citizen there is no alternative. The freedom and rights of individuals have not been prioritized.

When only closed, proprietary systems are available we are faced with several problems, among them the following two:

• We are forced to buy specific mobile phones or computers with specific operating systems in the latest versions. With this comes a large consumption of electronics, and the fact that we must become customers of companies like Microsoft, Google and Apple. Today that is a requirement for being able to use digital identification systems such as for example BankID and Freja eID.
• We cannot choose who has the power over our information. Today our society is dependent on a few huge companies to such an extent that an individual who is not a customer of Microsoft, Google or Apple is soon effectively unable to participate in society as a citizen in Sweden. But the most important question is not if those companies make good products. The important question is: should it be possible to be free or should our society be dependent on specific companies that all people must surrender their private information to?

There is a future where we have solved this. In that future, Sweden has one or several alternatives to BankID and FrejaEID, open solutions that are accessible for everyone. In that future, Sweden is an example for other countries who can follow. Also, we reduce the electronics waste since we are no longer forcing everyone to buy new products in order to keep using e-identification.

The key to a free and open solution is that it must be based on open standards that can be implemented using free/libre open-source software.

The advantages are many:

• The system becomes accessible for everyone regardless of operating system since the use of open standards means that everyne is free to create new implementations when needed, for example to support a different operating system.
• Nobody is forced to use closed, proprietary software from certain companies and worry about what those companies do with your private information.
• Free and open-source software also enables collaboration where many can contribute to high quality and security.

DIGG, the Agency for Digital Government in Sweden, nas a framework called Sweden Connect where different issuers of e-identification systems can join. The framework is technology-neutral making it possible to connect a free and open solution, something that DFRI wants to do. For this DFRI needs partners, for example other government agencies and organisations that like DFRI want to see an ei-identification solution where digital rights and freedoms are in focus. We can build it together.

Welcome to this seminar where DFRI (a Swedish non-profit and non-partisan organisation that promotes digital rights) will present more about this idea and project that the organisation’s members are driving in order to have digital rights and freedoms respected regarding e-identification.

Welcome to join the meeting!

See also: https://www.dfri.se/projekt/e-legitimation/project-introduction-in-english/

Contact mail@eliasrudberg.se with any questions.