Digital identity cards are set to be introduced in Switzerland after voters narrowly approved a referendum on Sunday.
Despite the majority of the cantons voting against the e-ID legislation, a razor-thin majority of 50.39 per cent of the Swiss public voted in favour of introducing digital identification, Blich reported.
Voters had previously rejected a similar effort in 2021; however, after Swiss lawmakers backed the creation of a digital ID, signatures were quickly gathered to put the measure back before the people in a referendum on Sunday.
It remains to be seen if this will be the final word on the matter, with opponents calling for another vote given the incredibly narrow result.
Critics of the Federal Act on Electronic Identity have warned that the technology used is insufficient to protect citizen data from cyberattacks and hacks.
Opponents have also warned that digital IDs could be the beginning of an all-encompassing surveillance state, which could be used to punish government critics or dissidents.
Proponents have noted that it will be an optional system, and that government authorities or private firms which use the system will be prohibited from obtaining more information than is needed from the digital ID card.
The system has been pitched as being a means for Swiss citizens to “identify themselves digitally in a secure, fast and uncomplicated way”.
The IDs, which will function as a smartphone app, will be used to access government services, provide age verification, and enable virtual transactions, such as opening a bank account or starting a mobile phone contract.
The government is also said to be planning to use the system to introduce digital travel tickets and potentially use it to develop an e-voting system.
It comes amid heated debate in the United Kingdom over similar plans to introduce a digital identity system. The left-wing Labour government in London has pitched it as a means of preventing illegal migrants from working in Britain.
However, critics have noted that those who don’t follow the law already — like illegal migrants — are unlikely to do so with a digital ID, and therefore, it would only impact law-abiding British citizens. The plans, which have long been advocated for by the likes of former PM Tony Blair, have sparked a major backlash, with over two million citizens signing a petition against digital IDs.
