Estonia / Finland
Estonian citizens will soon be able to pick up their new passports and ID cards in outlets of the Selver supermarket chain, rather than having to line up in police offices. The new scheme will be launched on January 12, initially in five locations – four in the capital Tallinn and one in Pärnu.
The service follows an agreement between the Ministry of the Interior of Estonia, Selver and Hansab, a private company. The latter will have a licence to issue documents in order to reduce queues at the Police and Border Guard (PPA) offices in the country.
The service is also set expand even into neighbouring Finland this Spring. Documents will be issued in Oulu, Turku, Kuopio, Vaasa, Tampere and Helsinki.
India
The Indian Government has asked the citizens to exercise caution while using their identification documents like the Aadhar Card.
The Ministry of Electronics & IT said in a press release that “Aadhaar is residents’ digital ID, and…works as a single supply of on-line and offline ID verification for residents across the country. Residents can use their Aadhaar quantity to confirm and validate their ID credentials both online or offline.”
The release added that while sharing Aadhaar with any trusted entity, caution could also be exercised based cellular quantity, bank account quantity or some other ID like passport, voter ID, PAN, ration card and so on.
Global
Global verification statistics published by London-based compliance-as-a-service firm Sumsub late last year suggest that online identity fraud attempts in the world economy grew in number by more than 50 percent between 2021 and 2022.
Sumsub reported that 1.7 percent of millions of verified online transaction attempts or service requests in multiple industries worldwide proved fraudulent in 2022. The 2021 fraud attempt percentage had been 1.1 percent.
E-sports was the main target of identity fraud in 2022, according to the report, which recorded the findings of anonymous studies in 21 sectors of the world economy covering the years 2021 and 2022.
Jordan
The Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship (MoDEE) has reported rolling out 450 new services to the Sanad digital identity application.
Official data and statistics of the Ministry also show that the number of Sanad stations to activate digital IDs reached 500 since the digital identity can be activated for free by visiting one of the stations spread throughout Jordan.
The digital identity can be activated for free through the applications of participating banks (Arab Bank, Union Bank, Housing Bank, Bank of Capital), and other banks will be added.
Turkey
Turkey plans to use blockchain technology during the login process for online public services. E-Devlet, Turkey’s digital government portal used to access a wide range of public services, will use a blockchain-based digital identity to verify Turkish citizens during login.
Fuat Oktay, vice president of Turkey, called the blockchain-based application a revolution for e-government efforts, adding that online services will be more secure and accessible with blockchain. Users will be able to keep their digital information on their mobile phones.
“With the login system that will work within the scope of the e-wallet application, our citizens will be able to enter the e-Devlet with a digital identity created in the blockchain network,” he said.
Thailand
In Thailand, the government has set an ambitious target of ten million registered digital IDs, double the current total, in an attempt to implement the Thailand Digital ID Framework (2022-24), reports the Bangkok Post, as per Biometric Update.
Led by the country’s Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry, in cooperation with the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA), the framework is designed to make access to public and private sector services easier, via the use of biometric data and digital ID.
Implementation is underway, and guidelines, standards and measures are being developed across sectors. A face verification service (FVS) system will allow users to register for a national digital ID and verify their identity online, eliminating the need to travel to a physical service location.
Thailand has three major digital ID platforms: Mobile ID, managed by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission; D.DOPA, by the Department of Provincial Administration (DPA), and National Digital ID.
Vietnam
The Vietnamese government is now one year into its plan to develop e-identification, e-authentication and a population database for digital transformation by 2025. Speaking in Hanoi, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said 2023 would be a year of “forming and exploiting data to create new values,” according to Vietnam Plus.
But he also stressed that there was work to be done in providing digital equality, noting that Vietnam still has 266 villages and hamlets with no access to power or internet services.
Philippines
National digital IDs could help alleviate some of the supply chain problems associated with printing physical ID cards. According to the Philippine Star, in Manila, a shortage of functioning laser engraving units has contributed to a massive backlog in issuing driver’s licences.
With defective units being repaired as a result of wear-and-tear, and a limited number of working machines in circulation, the backlog sat at 92,000 as of December 2022. Now, the head of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) has ordered all backlogs to be addressed by January 15 of this year.
Following its launch in 2017, the LTO was issuing 500,000 of the biometric drivers licences every month. The cards are equipped with 32 security features and fingerprint biometrics, says Biometric Update.
Indonesia
Indonesia is receiving $250 million in funding from the World Bank Group’s International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) to strengthen the country’s civil registration and increase the use of biometric digital identification for accessing public and private sector services.
The project reportedly seeks to digitise identity to tackle geographical inequality and a gender divide in financial inclusion, and boost the digital economy by improving a wide range of factors from increasing birth registrations to creating a replacement automated biometric identification system (ABIS). Tender documents are being made available.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia’s General Directorate of Passports (Jawazat) has launched a digital ID for expat families living in the Kingdom.
The new service will do away with paper ID and allow users to digitally identify family members.
Any time photo ID of family members is required by security officials in the Saudi Arabia it can now be presented on a smart phone and paper identification is no longer needed.
Costa Rica
On January 2, the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME) of Costa Rica started the transition process towards a new digital immigration identity document for foreigners (DIMEX card). This will be in PDF format with a QR code that will contain non-sensitive information of the individual and can be verified through a government website to ensure the document is authentic and up to date.
Additionally, the digital documentation will include a printed DIMEX card with security features and information to confirm the identity of the individual. Furthermore, foreigners who request new, duplicate, or renewal of their digital DIMEX card must provide a personal email address to receive the DIMEX card’s QR code.
