IT and society: German Government to introduce electronic ID cards

The German government jointly with Microsoft is working on a new generation of electronic ID cards, which will soon become available to German citizens. Microsoft has already released its new identity management software.

The new national ID card system in Germany is designed to give consumers control over the amount of personal data they share with specific organizations and public institutions. German citizens will be using new electronic cards starting in November, Scott Charney, corporate vice president of Trustworthy Computing at Microsoft said.

Microsoft is collaborating with the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems. Microsoft will provide U-Prove technology and Active Directory services while other project’s participants are going to offer solutions for inter-software interaction. “The system would allow German citizens to use one card to provide only data needed to verify enrollment status at a university and then provide only residency status to a separate organization, such as for voting purposes”, - explain Microsoft.

The move to cloud services makes it easier to control a large amount of data. On the other hand, the organizers hope to create a system which will give the citizens the ability to control access to different types of their data and prevent governments from getting access to information they shouldn’t have.