France Digital identity wants to forget Alicem


On digital identity, the government is moving forward with measured steps: after the failure of the Alicem solution, based on facial recognition and deemed too intrusive by its detractors, the succession is announced with the publication of the decree framing the implementation of the France Digital Identity service. Along with a website explaining the concept, this new service will be made available to citizens with a digital identity card. These new identity cards have an electronic chip used to store certain identity data of the bearer and have started to be given to citizens requesting a renewal of their card during the year 2021.

Service reserved for recent inserters

The first holders of this new card may therefore be the first beneficiaries of the France Digital Identity service. According to the dedicated site, this will take the form of a mobile application that will allow the user to carry out administrative procedures and to “authenticate online with the same security as the paper identity card in the real world. . Among the first cases of use envisaged, the government mentions “the provision of proof of majority without being obliged to give its other attributes of identity” (which could prove particularly useful if France intends to condition the access to sites for adults by providing proof of majority, or even “the management of proxies for the withdrawal of a package from a relay point”.

To use the service, users will therefore need to have their smart identity card, the PIN code used to authorize the use of the data stored in the card and finally the mobile phone application, which will serve as an interface for whether or not to authorize access to certain online procedures. The application will be available “in early May in beta” according to a tweet posted by France Identity last week.

Green light from the CNIL

The decree governing the operation of this new service was published last week in the official journal. The CNIL also expressed its opinion on the project, through two opinions available in the legal notices of the France Identity Digital website.

Although the CNIL clearly underlines a few points of law, relating for example to the updating of the impact studies linked to the project, it nevertheless expresses a very positive opinion with regard to the project: “The Commission welcomes this project, which she notes is the culmination of intensive exchanges with the ministry and that it allows the development of a high-level sovereign digital identity that respects the privacy of users,” she explains. as well in its opinion dated December 9, 2021.

Alicem’s bad memory

The Commission Nationale Informatique et Libertés had been much less tender with the predecessor of France Identity Numerique, the Alicem project. The latter was considering using facial recognition to enroll new users and verify their identity, without offering an alternative to those who refused to use this technology.

This choice had prompted the CNIL to issue a critical opinion with regard to this solution, and the subject had had a certain echo with the public, causing numerous criticisms. Alicem is now dead before he was really able to see the light of day, as confirmed by the France Identity Numerique website: “a certain public mistrust of this technology was raised during various citizen consultations” explain thus the authors, referring to the consultation of the CNNum as well as to the parliamentary information mission on digital identity.

Taking note of this first failure, the government has therefore chosen to opt for “developing the most inclusive user journeys possible”: France Digital Identity therefore completely dispenses with facial recognition. “Thus, the Alicem application is finally abandoned in favor of an initial enrollment capitalizing on the secure face-to-face in town hall at the time of the issuance of the title” summarizes the platform.





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