Identity management of e-ID, privacy and security in Europe. A human rights view

With privacy enhancing identity management, end users are given better ways for managing their identities for specific contexts. One could easily argue that the need to implement identity management systems that are privacy enhancing follows from the EU data protection regulation. One of the challenges while developing privacy enhancing identity management is getting governments to become genuinely interested, both in their capacity of data processing organisation and legislator or policy maker. Another challenge, this time for the private sector, is to find the right balance between data protection perfection and simplicity or users’ convenience, while developing privacy enhancing identity management systems. After a brief discussion of these challenges we discuss the growing human rights recognition of the value of digital identity and its management. In particular, the German constitutional court seems to pave the way for a basic right to have digital identity protected and secured. a 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. General and a new personality if you wish. Often we do not. In order Privacy is generally associated with the protection of the integrity, autonomy and private life of the individual. Basically, it’s about people’s right to choose how they want to live their life, and what things they want to keep private. Do we have a choice when interacting online? Often we do. The emergence of the Internet has allowed more and more people to discover certain aspects of identity formation hitherto unknown. Online worlds let you create a character, a home agement in e-society’, p ical and Policy Implicatio ship and the Israeli Cent Identity Management’, I identity management for ntität – die europäische P 531–532. er Ltd. All rights reserved to obtain certain goods or services we are required to identify ourselves in ways beyond our control. Identity management (IDM) is commonly referred to as the set of processes and tools that serve to establish the identity of a user (e.g. enrol an employee, customer, contractor) in a system. Today a trend towards user-centricity and privacy enhancing identity management is noticeable, with the EU funding research initiatives such as Prime enabling more user control. User-centricity distinguishes itself from other aper presented at NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) on ns of Automated Systems for Human Identification (Ait) organised er for the Study of Bioterrorism in Jerusalem, September 2–4, 2006 PTS reports, 2002, vol. 67 (http://www.jrc.es/home/report/english/ everyone,’ ACM, 2005, p. 20–27. For a more comprehensive overerspektive. Übersicht über aktuelle EU-Projekte’, DuD – Datenschutz