with contactless chip verification, checks will finally be able to be carried out securely

No more visual inspections, all you have to do is place your phone on a reader and the identity card will be verified. The device is currently available in a test version before being decommissioned and deployed at the end of 2024.

The digital identity card has just reached a new level, it can now be controlled without contact, since Wednesday June 19. This is good news for the nearly three million people who have dematerialized their card in the France Idété application. During an identity check, whether by the police or the SNCF, all you need to do is place your phone on a reader and the card will be verified, just like when you pay with your mobile.

Until now, the map was checked by simple visual inspection. The agent just looked at the photo and name on the phone screen. Which was far from secure. You could display a simple screenshot or even an edited image. A shame for a system designed precisely to prevent fraud. With contactless chip verification, checks will finally be able to be carried out securely. This was already possible with the dematerialized driving license. This will also become the case for the identity card.

This device has been available since Wednesday, but in beta test version, as they say, in the France Identity application. You must activate the “Experiment – ​​Present your data” function. In principle, this will be rolled out to everyone towards the end of 2024. As has been said, contactless verification will be safer for the person checking. But it will also be for the person being inspected, since no personal information will be exchanged, whereas with a visual inspection, the agent has access to everything on the card: your name and your photo , of course, but also your address, your date of birth and even your middle name which you prefer to keep secret.

Unfortunately, you will not be able to present your digital identity card in an office next week. It is still not accepted, so it is impossible to vote simply with your phone. You will absolutely need to have your physical identity card, license or passport. Same problem for proxies. They are supposed to be able to be carried out 100% online, except that, to avoid fraud, the digital identity must first have been certified with its fingerprints at the town hall. In short, you have to move so that you no longer have to move. All this is not yet fully developed.