Hello everyone and welcome to ZD Tech, ZDNet’s daily editorial podcast. My name is Guillaume Serriesand today I explain to you what is France Identity, the mobile application that should soon allow everyone to prove their identity online.
Yes, soon you will scan your ID card with your smartphone. In any case, this is what the France Identity mobile application will ask you to do, which for the time being can be used by a few beta testers, and this only on Android.
But as France Identity must enter the smartphones of all French people in the coming months, you might as well know what the future holds for you in this area.
Using your biometric identity card and smartphone to prove your identity online
First of all, here is the final objective: France Identity must make it possible to use its biometric identity card and its smartphone in order to prove its identity online.
Yes, you heard right, you can prove your identity directly from your smartphone. What to end with the scans of identity card, but also to justify its majority without revealing its identity, mentions the site of the government devoted to France Identity.
And the opportunities to prove one’s identity online will only increase. You will soon be able to make a power of attorney for a vote, or even open an online bank account.
4.5 million holders of these new cards which have been distributed since the summer of 2021
In detail, the smartphone equipped with the application and an NFC chip will scan the identity card chip, and the France Identity application will validate the operation, after asking you to enter a PIN code. dedicated.
Please note, however, this is not the classic identity card. Only holders of the new national biometric identity card, a card in credit card format and equipped with an electronic chip, will be able to use this system.
This chip embeds identity data such as civil status data, a photograph, the date of issue or even two fingerprints. But the government assures that this chip does not contain any geolocation data. And that personal data cannot be marketed.
To date, there are only 4.5 million holders of these new cards, which have been distributed since the summer of 2021.
France Identity succeeds Alicem, a project initiated in 2013 which planned to use facial recognition
But the France Identity application should already allow this summer to access France Connect, the portal used by more than 37 million people to pay their taxes, consult their pension rights or the balance of points on their driving license. .
So of course, the question of securing this application arises. Especially since the France Identity project succeeds Alicem, a project initiated in 2013 which planned to use facial recognition. But Alicem was abandoned following criticism from the CNIL.
The French government assures that by doing without biometrics, and by using a personal code, the risks to privacy are limited.