The famous Vitale e-card will be offered to all beneficiaries by the end of 2025. It is therefore not for now and the CNIL wants to take advantage of it so that the transition goes as well as possible, for the people and their data.
Since 1er January, Health Insurance generalized the experimentation of the dematerialized Vitale card to the whole territory, whereas it had already been tested sparingly in two, then four and finally in ten departments since 2019. The e – Vitale card, which should, if all goes well, be offered to all those insured by social security by 2025, is the subject of careful attention by the National Commission for Computing and Liberties, which refers to the guarantees to take to respect the rights of citizens.
A dematerialized vital card which will allow a whole bunch of steps
This e-carte Vitale, a dematerialized version of the traditional carte vitale in bank card format, will be available from the mobile application “carte Vitale”, allowing both to make and follow up on requests for reimbursement of health expenses, consult their rights and even download documents.
The dematerialized Carte Vitale, which will not include any medical information, will also facilitate treatment in the event of hospitalization and will help to identify themselves as cardholders, as well as for entitled persons, since it will include the surnames, first name, social security number, photo and postal or electronic address of the latter. It will also be used to connect to certain digital health services and will offer a real alternative to FranceConnect.
To obtain this card, the holder must be attached to a social security organization and download the Carte Vitale application on their device. Before the large-scale deployment by the end of 2025, each national health insurance fund will be able to establish its own timetable. But what about verifying and protecting the person’s identity?
The CNIL insists that the Vitale e-card should not become biometric
To verify the identity of a person who decides to activate his digital vital card, it will be necessary to go through a mobile application allowing access to his national electronic identity card (CNI-e). The CNIL refers to the digital identity guarantee service, the SGIN. This CNI-e can be requested by everyone since August 2, 2021. Failing this, verification of identity may involve comparing a photo of the face taken using their smartphone and the photo appearing on the identity document. This process is therefore based on biometrics, as certain well-known applications do today.
If one of the verification mechanisms should be biometric, the Vitale e-card will not be. Here we stick to the only authentication when activating the application. Any medical or hospital care will not be subject to biometric identification. It should however be noted that a draft biometric Vitale card is currently being discussed in Parliament. The consequences are still unknown.
The CNIL had made various remarks to the government before it issued the decree validating the dematerialized vital card project. For example, the Commission was heard on the gradual deployment of this e-card, but also on the balance to be found between the innovation represented by such a service and the need not to accentuate the digital divide. Any user will be able to request support for the installation of the dedicated application.
The data policeman expects by June 2023 a report on the conditions for implementing the biometric part of the application, which must stop at the sole verification of identity, recalls the authority. If the CNIL gave the green light to the digital vital card, it insists that the tool can be easily accessible and understandable, with well-defined methods of informing people.
Source : CNIL
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