ID.GOV.PT

Countries

Portugal

Policy areas

Organisation name AMA – Administrative Modernization Agency

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Contact person: Cláudia Barroso, Head of the International Relations Office

Id.gov.pt is an app for mobile phones (Android, iOS, HarmonyOS) that allows citizens to create, access and legally share valid digital versions of personal identification documents. These include national ID cards, healthcare, tax and social security cards, and driving licences. This project aims to help citizens in managing the numerous personal documents they need to access services, engage in public initiatives and interact with authorities. An unambiguous citizen identification is key to guarantee an effective high-quality delivery of services. From the citizen’s perspective, accessing and using different legal documents through their own smartphones brings convenience, ease of administrative burden and time saving.

Nowadays in a fast-paced changing world, an e-wallet benefits both citizens and the state, as having such information digitally available allows easier, more secure and trusted interactions between them. The id.gov.pt app is a pioneer project when it comes to a digital wallet for mobile phones. It includes a strong authentication via an eIDAS-compliant mechanism, the Portuguese mobile eID solution Digital Mobile Key (DMK), which is notified to the European Commission with a ‘high’ level of assurance.

The id.gov app provides the citizen an unequivocal proof of their identity with both public and private authorities, in a very easy way. It aims to simplify citizens’ relationship with the state, responding to their needs through the convenience of a mobile device. From the authorities’ point of view, it represents a reliable and quick mechanism to check and validate personal IDs. The app allows online and real-time validation of the digital documents through a simple and secure process that uses an official European eIDAS Regulation-compliant authentication mechanism, the Digital Mobile Key (DMK).

The development of id.gov.pt is an ongoing process, and the updates are currently underway for offline/P2P transmission of data (Bluetooth, NFC) and support to the Mobile Driving Licence standard (ISO/IEC DIS 18013-5). Other documents will be available for download very shortly with the dematerialisation of the military ID, the single automobile document (car registry) and the car insurance. Other cards are expected to follow.

Additionally, multichannel communication actions are being prepared to promote the uptake and dissemination of id.gov.pt by end-users and the public administration itself. The use of electronic identification solutions such as id.gov.pt have a positive impact at economic and environmental levels. These include the reduction of costs (e.g. administrative procedures, work and travel hours), convenience for productivity, and paper and energy savings by reducing the need for physical copies and authentications of personal identification documents.

Since the app was launched in January 2019 and up to April 2021, there have been a total of 548 338 app downloads (375 284 in Android and 173 054 in iOS), which already reflects an important citizens’ uptake. This is especially the case considering the scarce time since the launch, the Portuguese global population of around 11 million and the massive circulation restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The overall number of downloaded cards amounts to 793 948, with the Citizen Card being the most sought after (390 966 downloads), followed by the driving licence (337 173) and the ADSE health card (65 809).

Overall, the number of active cards – for example, cards updated during the previous month – amounts to 144 656 documents; the demand for seamless, mobile services has greatly increased in the past years. The public administration is committed to push forward these innovative ways to interact with the citizens, showing a clear stake on the future of digital government.

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