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Pola Pelchen

Pola Pelchen

The next wave of digital ID: two countries, one destination

Digital identity is moving from plans to action.

The next wave of digital ID: two countries, one destination

Within just a few weeks, Switzerland and the United Kingdom have announced how their national digital ID systems will work. These are two very different countries with different approaches to eIDs, but their general direction is the same. Both the Swiss and British governments want to give their citizens and residents a simple way to prove their identity online, and give local regulated businesses a reliable way to trust the information they receive.


The Swiss decision: privacy first, by a razor-thin margin

Swiss citizens approved a new state-run eID referendum by the slimmest of margins: 50.4% in favour versus 49.6% against.

The Swiss eID is voluntary and free for citizens. The Confederation will manage issuance and operate the core service. Official messaging promises privacy by design, minimal data shared, and no tracking of how people use their e-ID. 

In practical terms, that means a government app (or other wallet) holds your digital credentials and supports a system designed for minimal disclosure. It’s a direct answer to fears that a fully centralised wallet could double as a surveillance tool.

Switzerland’s law and communications focus on state-issued credentials, freedom of choice on where you store them, local control, and careful disclosure. The rollout thus far has highlighted its everyday use cases: logging in to services and providing attributes — all without leaving a permanent data trail. 


The UK: policy ambition meets public scepticism

The UK is moving towards a national digital identity built around a GOV.UK Wallet and the existing trust framework for accredited private verifiers. 

In technical terms, the plan leans on verifiable credentials and clear rules for who may request which attributes and when. 

The mood in the country is another story. A public petition titled Do not introduce Digital ID cards has passed over 2.6 million signatures. The anxiety revolves around centralisation, tracking and whether a government-run wallet could become the only practical route to daily life. 

That fear grows when digital ID cards and digital wallets are treated as the same thing.

Implementation will decide the outcome. A voluntary scheme, no central tracking, independent certification of verifiers, and strict data-minimisation would lower the temperature, allowing citizens to store government-issued credentials in a wallet of their choice. While the state remains the issuer, it would help push this further. 

That is the safeguard many privacy advocates applaud in Switzerland: the government issues, people choose where to keep and present it.

For businesses, the path is straightforward. Be ready to accept the GOV.UK Wallet when it arrives, ask only for the attributes you need, and keep a universal fallback (an alternative path, such as document-plus-liveness, for anyone who cannot or will not use a wallet). 

Our position is consistent: digital ID is a good idea when it is built with privacy and choice from the start.


Why now

Over the past two years, digital ID has moved from talk to action in two of Europe’s most eID-sceptic markets. 

Switzerland approved a state-run, voluntary eID that issues credentials and lets people choose where to store them, with data shared only when needed and no central tracking. 

The vote was incredibly close at 50.4% to 49.6%, which tells you trust must be earned in how the system is built and explained.

The UK is preparing a GOV.UK Wallet and a single rulebook for who may request which attributes. 

The plan promises simpler services and less fraud, yet it is meeting strong public resistance focused on fear of it becoming a tool of mass surveillance. 

Both countries are reacting to the same pressures that pushed the Nordics towards BankID years ago and that now shape online life everywhere: welfare and healthcare that work at mobile speed, lower fraud rates, safer experiences for minors, faster right-to-work and right-to-rent checks, and border processes that are both humane and efficient. 

The direction is clear even if designs differ. Digital identity becomes normal when proofs are quick, voluntary and privacy-preserving, and when businesses can rely on the result without hoarding data. 

Selective disclosure helps here, allowing people to prove only what is needed, such as being over 18 without handing over a full date of birth.


The practical takeaway for teams is simple

Prepare for a mixed reality in which some users arrive with a wallet and others do not.

Keep a universal fallback (an alternative path such as document plus liveness) and instrument the whole journey so Product, Ops and Compliance can see what happened.

Our role at Authologic is to make that preparation boring and safe. We connect you to national eIDs and wallets where they exist and keep document-plus-selfie in the same flow, so you can move with the policy tide without rewriting your product.

If this sounds of interest to you, check out our LinkedIn profile, where we’ll keep you updated on the freshest news regarding eIDs, and more!


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