Swiss vote against system for online login with digital identity

In Switzerland, the introduction of a national system for logging in online via electronic identification has been rejected. The people of the country could vote for or against this via a referendum. A majority was against.

A Swiss government site shows that nearly 1.78 million Swiss voted against and 984,611 people gave a positive verdict. This means that a 64 percent majority voted against the Federal Act on Electronic Identification Services, also known as the e-ID Act. This law regulates how people can identify themselves electronically on the internet, so that they can quickly purchase goods or services, for example. This should also make it possible to open a bank account or request official documents.

It is a voluntary resource. Any Swiss who wants an e-ID must obtain one from a federally approved provider. This sends the request to the central government, where the identity of the applicant is checked, after which the provider gets approval to provide the e-ID. These providers can be companies, but also the different individual cantons or federal states of Switzerland.

According to Urs Bieri, a political scientist at the GFS Bern research institute, the distrust of private companies in particular played a dominant role and was crucial for the rejection. That writes SWI, the international part of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. These private companies would mainly be the providers for e-ID. Swiss Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter confirmed that there was “a certain discomfort” among voters. Some would also have voted against it in protest against the government and its Covid-19 policy. According to the referendum committee, the voters did not so much vote against the concept of a digital identity, but mainly against the proposed plan.