Estonia adds identity verification to new digital government app

Estonia has launched an identity verification feature for the country’s digital government app to make it easier to access services.

The EEsti.ee app, sometimes referred to as the Estonian app, was launched in December, and connects to more than 50 government services. It allows users to view their personal data and their children’s, access prescriptions, receive notifications from the government, manage their automobiles and report maintenance issues to their local government.

Cybernetica submitted the minimum viable product for Estonia’s national digital identity wallet to the country’s Information System Authority (RIA) a year ago. Idemia has worked with Cybernetica on Estonia’s digital government system, and Inverid is the Estonian company’s partner for NFC document scanning. eEstonia Digital Transformation Adviser Erika Piirmets had explained the country’s efforts to deliver digitalized ID documents in an app that could be used for both identity verification and service access in an interview with Biometric Update a month earlier.

The app was launched to the Apple App Store and Google Pay, with Estonian and English text, by the RIA. A translation tool to allow it to be used in any language is currently in development.

Now, an amendment to the Identity Documents Act has allowed the RIA to release an update with the ID verification feature. The change enables service providers to treat verifications through the app as equivalent to those performed with a biometric passport of national ID card.

“Although the rollout of the new solution will take some time for service providers, it’s very practical for everyday use, and I’m confident it will catch on quickly,” RIA Deputy Directo General Taavi Ploompuu told state news outlet ERR. In the meantime, he advised Estonians to continue carrying physical IDs.

Estonia’s Justice and Digital Affairs Minister Liisa Pakosta said that a data tracking feature in the app allows individuals to ask questions about interactions in which their data has been viewed.

Users can perform identity verification by downloading the app, and then logging in using their Mobile-ID, Smart-ID or an EU digital ID. Then they can select the desired document and click a button to show a QR code for identity verification. The code is valid for only three minutes, and readable only via the app, which the service provider is also logged in to. The service provider scans the code by selecting the “scan document” option, after which the service provider’s device will show the scanned identity data for 30 seconds.

The Estonian app had reached only 52,000 downloads as of early July.

Estonia has the digital ID bona fides to trust that its approach will catch on eventually, however. Among its advanced uses of identity verification, the country approved the private Smart-ID app for voter verification earlier this year.

Article Topics

digital government  |  digital identity  |  EEsti.ee app  |  Estonia  |  government services  |  identity verification  |  mobile app