The digital identity wallet launches: what changes for users from day one

The digital identity wallet went live today, letting citizens prove who they are in public and private transactions from their phones, with the promise that users disclose only the minimum: proving your age does not mean revealing your date of birth.

How it works

The wallet stores digitally signed credentials on the device itself, and the party requesting verification can read only the attribute it asked for. Buying an age-restricted product, for instance, returns a simple "yes" or "no" to the seller and nothing else.

The privacy questions

Despite that design, privacy researchers point out that the real question is the usage log: does the issuer know where and when you used your identity? The supervising authority says verification happens without contacting its servers in ordinary cases, but the full technical documentation has not been published yet.

"Good design starts from the assumption that even the issuer should not know more than necessary," an information-security researcher told MADAR.

What you can do now

• Activate the wallet in the official app after biometric verification.
• Review the list of parties that requested verification from inside the app.
• Revoke the credentials immediately if you lose your phone.

The physical card remains valid throughout the transition, and nobody is obliged to use the wallet — a condition civil-rights groups called essential for accepting the project.