Identity Wallet: A Tool for Empowerment or a Mechanism of Control?
Freedom or surveillance? Digital IDs offer convenience but come with risks. Are they tools of empowerment or state control over your personal data?
Introduction: Piecing Together the Puzzle
Digital identity is more than just technology—it’s about trust, power, and control. As I started researching digital identification, I realized how much trust plays a role in how we perceive it.
At a national level, systems like DigiD or BankID are familiar. We understand them. But when the discussion moves to an EU-wide digital ID (EUDI), something changes. The EU feels distant, bureaucratic, and harder to influence.
Why do we accept national ID systems more easily? What makes an EU-wide digital ID different? And how do identification systems shift from being a tool for convenience to a mechanism of control? I don’t have all the answers, but let’s lay down some puzzle pieces together.
1. Identity vs. Identification: A Crucial Distinction
One of the first things I needed to untangle was the difference between identity and identification:
- Identity is who you are—your name, age, profession, beliefs. It’s something personal, shaped by culture, experience, and context.
- Identification is proving who you are. It requires an external system—a passport, ID card, login credentials—to validate your identity.
📌 Key question: Who controls identification? Governments? Private corporations? Or should individuals have more say in how their identity is verified?
Many people think of identity as just a name, address, or date of birth. But in centralized systems, identity is far more than that—it becomes an extensive digital profile that carries significant privacy implications.
A centralized system doesn’t just store who you are but also how you behave:
✔️ Personal details – Name, age, nationality, and official documents
✔️ Financial footprint – Bank accounts, transactions, tax records
✔️ Communication patterns – Call logs, messages, email metadata
✔️ Health data – Medical history, prescriptions, fitness tracking
✔️ Social connections – Contacts, friendships, work relationships
✔️ Digital behaviour – Search history, purchases, app usage, location
The more a system knows, the more control it has over verification, tracking, and access. Identity becomes not just a key to services, but a tool for surveillance, profiling, and even manipulation.
2. The Trust Factor: Why National Digital IDs Work (For Now)
Most European countries already have national digital identity systems, and they work fairly well. Examples include:
- Netherlands: DigiD (used for taxes, healthcare, and official documents)
- Belgium: eID & Itsme (widely accepted in banking and public services)
- Sweden: BankID (a private-sector-driven ID used for everything from banking to e-commerce)
- Estonia: e-Residency & ID-Card (an advanced system allowing digital signatures, online voting, and business registration)
I use DigiD myself, and while I don’t love it, I trust it more than a system run by the EU. Why? Because:
- I know who’s in charge—my national government, not a distant bureaucracy.
- There’s some level of accountability—even if flawed, my vote impacts national policies.
- It’s still mostly voluntary, though increasingly necessary for services.
📌 Key point: Familiarity breeds trust. We trust national systems because they are closer to us.
Rob Hoeijmakers
3. The EU-Wide Digital ID: A Different Beast?
The EU’s eIDAS 2.0 framework aims to create a European Digital Identity Wallet, allowing citizens to store credentials (passport, driver’s license, medical records) and use them across borders.
While this sounds convenient, the trust gap between national governments and the EU raises concerns:
- The EU feels distant – Policies are made at the Commission level, where citizens have little direct influence.
- Data centralization – A pan-European system could create a single point of control over identity verification.
- Function creep – What starts as a convenience could quickly become an obligation.
📌 Key question: Will an EU-wide ID system be an empowering tool or a mandatory requirement?
4. From Voluntary to Mandatory: The Gradual Shift
We’ve seen this before. During COVID, digital passes went from optional travel tools to requirements for accessing everyday life.
Could the same thing happen with an EU Digital ID? A possible trajectory:
- First, it’s only for government services.
- Then, it’s required for banking, e-commerce, and social media.
- Eventually, there’s no alternative—you must use it for identification everywhere.
📌 Key concern: The issue isn’t whether digital ID is useful. It’s who decides when and how it is used.
5. What Would a Trustworthy Digital ID Look Like?
For a European digital ID to gain trust, it must:
- Give users control – Individuals must decide who accesses their data.
- Avoid centralization – No single government or corporation should control identity verification.
- Guarantee alternatives – No mandatory use, no loss of choice.
- Be transparent – With clear oversight and accountability.
📌 Final thought: Digital ID should be a tool, not a requirement. Trust must be earned, not imposed.
Conclusion: The Puzzle Remains Unfinished
This topic is too big to fit neatly into one article. There are technical, political, and ethical layers to unravel. I set out to understand the trust gap between national and EU identification systems, and I’m left with even more questions.
What do you think? Is an EU-wide digital ID a necessary step for the future, or a dangerous move toward centralized control? The discussion is far from over.
