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Identity in Danger? Or: Freedom through State IncompetenceThe EU Digital Wallet is coming – and Germany is, as always, perfectly prepared: with forgotten PINs, abolished reset services, and mountains of unpaid letters. Total surveillance? It will probably fail because of the greatest German success factor: sheer incompetence. The digital wallet is coming – whether we want it or notThe digital wallet is going to arrive. At the latest by early 2027, all EU member states must provide their citizens with a central digital wallet – for identity proofs, access credentials, driving licences and so on and so forth.The eID Regulation promises convenienceThat’s what the eID Regulation prescribes. Everything is supposed to be convenient and efficient and, of course, completely harmless. Critics warn of surveillance, centralised data and too much state in your trouser pocket.But then comes German realityBut honestly, I’m actually feeling a bit more relaxed right now. Because to use the wallet, you need the online ID card. And to use the online ID card, you need a PIN. You may remember the letter you received at some point and stowed away so safely that you never found it again.Well, that can happen. Forgot the PIN? Just have it reset. That used to be possible here too – in the past. But at the beginning of 2024, the federal government simply abolished the PIN reset service – for cost reasons. Digitalisation costs money and you have to save somewhere. Best place to save: right at the access to digitalisation itself. No PIN? No online ID. No online ID? No wallet.Since then the rule has been: no PIN, no online ID card, no wallet. Of course there were solutions. Well, announcements of solutions – lots of them. Digital reset process, fee-based, free, hybrid, maybe by post, by hope. Nothing was actually implemented. Then the idea of sending the PIN by post to everyone who had forgotten it, for €15.The Bundesrat said: “Nah, let’s not do that, okay?” Now the responsible ministry is checking whether the service can be offered free of charge again on a transitional basis. From the second half of 2026, the letter dispatch is supposed to start again. I love digitalisation in Germany. Parallel universe: letters instead of bitsSo when the wallet launches, we’ll also be getting the letters. In parallel, work is being done on a fully digital PIN reset process. But that might get difficult again with the European Union, because the rights don’t quite fit yet. Maybe new rules or laws or new committees or new years will be needed.Incompetence as guarantor of freedomThe PIN problem has existed since 2024. The wallet is coming in 2026/2027. And the solution is under review. This is not a bug, this is digitalisation in Germany. And that’s exactly why I’m cautiously optimistic. If the government can’t even manage to reliably reset a PIN, how realistic is the grand digital total surveillance via the wallet really?Perhaps this surveillance won’t fail because of citizen resistance – which is hardly noticeable anyway, unfortunately. Perhaps it won’t fail because of courts or data protection either, but because of forms, responsibilities and the question of who actually pays for the letter. Perhaps the greatest freedom we have is not the Basic Law, but the incompetence of the state. And if that’s the case, then for once that really is good news. Author: AI-Translation - Joana Cotar | |
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