BankID launches digital identity card | Moving

BankID, Sweden’s most popular digital identification service, has announced that it is about to launch the functionality of using BankID as a digital identity card.

Once the function is implemented, the user can identify themselves as normal in the BankID app, where a digital ID card will be displayed on the screen for two minutes showing, among other things, a photo, name, social security number and age. It also displays an animated QR code that can be read with a scanner. In this way, companies can identify a person with the help of a scanner, since verification is already carried out with BankID, and with the help of a photo. To make faking identity with a screenshot more difficult, someone who wants to identify themselves can tap the screen, causing the image to blur and playing the sound.

Using a digital ID document also means that an ID card that is no longer valid cannot be shown, reducing the risk of businesses and stores mistakenly approving the use of an invalid or blocked ID document.

BankID doesn’t say when digital ID card support will be implemented, but to activate it you need either a valid Swedish passport or a national ID card. Driving license will not work. The digital identity card will then display the same information and image as the identity document with which it was created, and is valid for the same period.