Monaco, by way of its digital transition program Extended Monaco, has been on the prowl to deploy a national digital identity scheme of its own after already producing its very own 5G network and an e-Healthworld. Recently, however, the microstate announced that they selected IN Groupe, a secure digital services company, as their technological partner to help design and implement a digitized integrated identity system. Electronic ID cards, biometric passports, and residence permits will be deployed to its almost 39,000 citizens starting in the first half of 2021.

IN Groupe, as a partner to implement biometrically-based digital identities, prides itself on lending a hand for sovereign countries to carry out a fundamental right—the right, they contend, for citizens “to be themselves.”

An e-ID Inside of an e-ID

Though a microstate, Monaco is no less a standing member of the European Union, who has their own digitized identification system, eIDAS (electronic identification and trust services). Monaco and IN Groupe’s identity system will not interfere—in fact, the technology is suspected to align with the European regulations of eIDAS and anticipates digital interoperability with other electronic identification services. 

The program intends to also use standard protocols, OSIA and OIDC as it pertains to open ID connect. 

Marked Benefits

Data protection and privacy are of utmost import to the Principality of Monaco and its sovereign prince. Monaco and IN Groupe’s new identity documents seek to forge a stronger—and more closely-tied— relationship between the government and its citizens with these base values in mind.

To obtain the technology on mobile devices, there are two requisites. A qualified signature, firstly, and the notification that the individual approved the link between their current, physical government identity and their digitized one. Citizens will be able to also request renewal of their identification as it updates, a forward-thinking feature as the principality delves deeper in the digital domain.

The technology offers a progreessive range of services, from producing online sworn statements and the paperless signing of contracts to obtaining birth certificates from City Hall’s one-stop-shop single sign-on site. Accessibility and innovation are at the heart of this partnership and incumbent identity technology.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Olivia Baker is a Tech Innovation Fellow at Identity Review from Columbia University, where she writes on tech policy and national digital identity technologies.