The Traffic Light coalition has agreed on the option of a “free” PIN reset and activation service (PRSD) for electronic identification (eID) in ID cards. The federal government was forced to discontinue the service at the end of 2023 due to “untenable costs”. Government factions now want to make it possible to change the six-digit secret number online for the first time and also to outsource this task to make the private offer cheaper. This provides for the planned amendment of the ID card law, which Traffic Light has agreed on as part of its amendments to the draft of the government’s fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act, which are available online at Heise Online.
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Darknet: Investigators use timing analysis to anonymize Tor usersThe Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) should therefore be able to transfer sovereign powers “to carry out the task of resetting the requested PIN electronically” by “lending” these to legal entities under private law. The general purpose of this outsourcing tool is to relieve the state through deregulation and privatization, whereby the service providers are also given their own decision-making powers. By means of a loan, the Federal Office for Freight Transport appointed the company Toll Collect to supervise truck tolls in Germany. The Bundesdruckerei could now be considered to reset the PIN. It currently has a 100% federal stake, albeit in private legal form. But FDP circles said this company could be too expensive. An open call for tenders is planned by the BMI.
According to the argument, the possibility of lending money creates “a certain flexibility” when it comes to changing the secret number. The question of the economic efficiency of carrying out the tasks “now plays a stronger role than before”. Citizens are expected to save around 105,000 hours per year through the online procedure. Relief comes from the assumption that around 140,000 citizens reset their PIN electronically each year. Compared to going to the office, an average of 45 minutes can be saved per case. However, the coalition estimates that it will cost around 15 euros per reset – roughly the same as sending a new PIN by letter using the PostIdent procedure. In addition to the free reset issued at the authority, citizens are offered another voluntary but more convenient option.
Data security risks should be avoided as much as possible
The requirements for potential service providers are not without their own. When carrying out the assigned task, they are seen as part of the public administration, with all the rights and obligations of an authority. For example, you must be able to handle a sovereign authority certificate and comply with the “relevant state of the art”. Operational procedures must be ensured on an ongoing basis. Any disruptions to IT systems as well as threats to data protection and IT security should be “avoided as far as possible” through appropriate organisational and technical precautions. Traffic Light expects that the relevant companies already have the appropriate infrastructure in place and prices may be even lower.
The coalition has removed the clause criticised by former Federal Data Protection Commissioner Ulrich Kelber, according to which private bodies should be given access to e-passport data with biometric features for travel processing at airports, for example. According to the applications, the legal committee advising on the dossier “intensively discussed” the option of digital reading. As a result, he is refraining from adopting these legal changes for the time being, given the short time frame for the entire revision. In particular, the data protection concerns raised require further investigation. A new standard remains part of the bureaucratic relief package, according to which an employment contract can generally be concluded entirely digitally in the future, for example by email.
(MMA)
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