The France Identity application was initially presented in May 2022 in beta version. This mobile application, developed by Atos on behalf of the government, allows users to register their identity documents and produce valid digital supporting documents, whether online or during a physical check.
Available on Android and iPhone, the application also allows you to authenticate on France Connect in order to access the various administrative services using this authentication system.
Victim of his own success
The announcement of the availability of the application caused a certain excitement among users who sparked problems connecting to the service in the morningbut these have since been resolved.
Despite its final version, the application is not accessible to everyone: only holders of the new identity cards in bank card format. These in fact have a secure electronic chip which carries personal and biometric information allowing the holder to be identified.
The new cards therefore include the surname, first name, date and place of birth, address, height, gender, date of issue of the card and expiry date, as well as the user’s fingerprints and photo. This new card format has been offered to citizens requesting an identity card renewal since August 2021 throughout the country.
Generation of supporting documents
For those who have this new card format, the France Identity application allows you to register your card within the application and then use it to produce single-use identity documents: this is documents containing the basic information of the identity card, backed by a recipient, a reason and an expiry date as well as a QR Code which allows you to check the validity of the certificate online.
This approach aims to limit the possibilities of identity theft and avoid the multiplication of photocopies of identity documents.
In addition to the identity card, the application is taking advantage of its launch to integrate driving licenses. This time, all driving licenses are compatible with the application and can be imported in order to also produce digital supporting documents, as long as you have an electronic identity card. In the coming months, France Identity should also make it possible to integrate vehicle identification documents. And the application promises a future experiment with the SNCF to allow users to prove their identity on transport.
Do better than Alicem
The ministry specifies that the application has obtained the stamp of Anssi, which awarded it its CSPN certification in November and announced today that the application benefits from a high level of guarantee in its compliance with the European regulation EIDAS.
Which does not prevent the government from announcing a new open bug bounty to report vulnerabilities in the application: this will be implemented “in the coming months” and will be supervised by YesWeHack. It was this French company that had already been responsible for organizing the first closed bug bounty program launched in 2022 for the application.
France Identity allows the government to definitively turn the page on Alicem, the first digital identity project put forward by the government which had attracted numerous criticisms due to its use of facial recognition technologies. Alicem was finally officially buried in 2022 to make way for the France Identity project, which relies on new smart identity cards to verify the identity of holders.
A new approach that the CNIL welcomes “very favorably”.