Analysts Fear European Digital Identity Wallet Implementation Might Lead to Mass Surveillance
The technical implementation of the European Digital Identity Wallet has analysts and experts worried, with some
warning against the veiled introduction of a system to exert online surveillance over European citizens. Since the announcement of the final agreement on the project,
more than 500 scientists and researchers from 39 countries and foundations like Mozilla have called on the European Union (EU) to rework a leaked
Eidas (Electronic Identification, Authentication, and Trust Services) document to address these concerns.
The problem lies in Article 45 of the document, which establishes that web browsers distributed in Europe have to accept digital certificates and cryptographic keys from the EU and its member countries.
According to the experts,
this would mean that “any EU member state or third party country, acting alone, is capable of intercepting the web traffic of any EU citizen, and there is no effective recourse.” The European Commission has disregarded the concern, stating that it was part of a misunderstanding of the project as it is presented. It reported that “there is no risk of government spying, nor breaching the confidentiality of internet connections” with the current iteration of Eidas in a Q&A session.
