The Nordic case of electronic IDs and their implications for digital equality

• In the Nordic countries, there is widespread digitization in the public sector, with the aim of making the sector more cost-effective (Collington 2022) while maintaining efficient services to citizens. The Nordic countries are often reported to be at the forefront in terms of digitization of public services (Digital Economy and Society Index 2022:66), with over 90% of its internet users in the age group 16-74 report using digital public services. However, as argued by Van Deursen and van Dijk (2019), internet connection saturation rates do not solve policy challenges of digital divides and inequalities. As shown from the Nordic context, the ‘digital by default’ and self-service oriented public sector policies established, have implications for digital inequality and tend to exclude already disadvantaged groups (Shou & Pors 2019). It could be argued that the public sector digital services seldom aim at maintaining or strengthening equality (Goedhart et al. 2022). One of the more important technologies in the digitization of citizen related services are electronic IDs (E-IDs), that allow citizens to access digital government services and information. In Europe and globally, several policy efforts are underway to create standards and interoperable digital infrastructures for digital identification (European Commission 2019; The Global Government Forum 2022). In the Nordic countries, the most common solution is a Bank ID. Without a government approved E-ID, access to government services can be very cumbersome and difficult, and not all inhabitants of the Nordic countries can get one. This, we argue, is not so much a result of deliberate decisions of who to include and exclude, as it is a result of systemic blind spots when it comes to marginalized groups in society. Rather than understanding these digital technologies from a narrow technical and legal perspective, it seems relevant to better understand the performative and wider socio-political meanings and implications of digital identification policies and processes (c.f. Whitley & Shoemaker 2022), where digital identities currently receive status as the main means to get access and participate in (the digital) society. In this paper, we therefore focus on three domestic examples of the prescribed uses of bankID in Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden and Norway), and the governing rationalities these rely on. In particular, we aim to examine the implications of intersecting exclusionary aspects for citizens in the encounter with digital public services. Our findings emanate from the research project, Infrastructures for partially digital citizens: Supporting informal welfare work in the digitized state (SOS), funded by Nordforsk. Digital inequality and digital inclusion/exclusion can be viewed from different angles: It can be seen as rooted in individual as well as structural factors (Mervyn et al. 2014, Reisdorf & Rhinesmith 2020). It can be seen as something that derives from a “deficit” in citizens’ skills and resources (Brants & Frissen 2003), or as something created by the way digitalization has been carried out by government (Mervyn et al. 2014, Morris et al. 2020) reinforcing existing social exclusions. We build on theories that see digital inequality in an intersectional perspective focusing on the intersections between digital technologies, structural conditions, and a tendency of “othering” in societies (Yingqin & Walsham 2021), identifying groups as misfitting within the prescribed requirements. In this perspective, inequality and inclusion/exclusion is seen as a result of the positionality of citizens in intersecting social orders. There is a clear link between social exclusion and digital exclusion and digital exclusion often builds on existing social disadvantages and inequalities (Park & Humphrey 2019). In all three Nordic countries, the E-ID services are conditioned by the private sector requirements for citizens, and not the public sector authorities. Unlike Denmark and Norway who set up E-ID services in public-private partnership arrangements between the government and the financial sector, Sweden’s main E-ID services, BankID and Freija E-ID Plus, are privately owned businesses. The BankID service in Sweden, with a usage rate of 94% among smartphone users, requires not only your social security number, you should also be a customer of one of the affiliated banks. The banks do not have a standardised BankID order process, and often require that the applicant has a sufficient mastery of Swedish or English. Freija eID is an alternative, and does not require bank affiliation. It also allows for an internet proxy user, e.g. family member or caregiver access. For the BankID in Norway, a Norwegian social security number is required, and for accessing it, you need either a pin code generator or an app for mobile verification. To be able to use the MitID service in Denmark, you not only need a permanent address, you also need a Civil Personal Registration (CPR) number. MitID has several functionalities and provides access, authentication, and digital signatures in both the public and the private sector, including for verification when using credit cards online. Furthermore, almost all Nordic E-ID services require that you are at least 13 years of age. Our findings show that even if it is not mandatory to get an E-ID in any of the three countries (with Denmark with perhaps the strongest governing demand), for citizens it can be very difficult to access a wide range of services without one, and the number of requirements of getting one can be difficult to fulfill for people in intersecting and disadvantaged situations. Therefore, rather than seeing such exclusion as individual deficits, we see it as the results of sociotechnical arrangements that exclude those who are not able to access them, or chose not to (see also Goedhart et al. 2022: 3). Several examples of intersections between excluding digital technologies, structural conditions and “othering” are made visible. For example, being a registered citizen or inhabitant, that is, having received a social security number or CPR number, having a permanent address, having domestic or English language skills, having a bank account/being a bank customer, being over a certain age, having a smartphone (preferably of a recent model).

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Annan teknik -- Interaktionsteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Other Engineering and Technologies -- Interaction Technologies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Digital equality; Digital inclusion; Electronic IDs

digitization

public services

Nordic countries

Scandinavia

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)