Swiss voters approve a plan to enter digital identification numbers

Swiss voters have closely approved a plan for the introduction of voluntary electronic identity cards.

With all the votes count, 50.4% of the votes said yes to the proposal, while 49.6% rejected it.

The proximity to the newsletter is a surprise. Public opinion polls suggested up to 60% supported digital identification numbers, which also had the approval of the Swiss government and both parliamentary palaces.

It was Switzerland’s second vote on digital identification numbers. A more proposal was rejected in 2021 against the background of fears that the data would be held centrally and to a large extent controlled by private suppliers.

The audited proposal on Sunday maintains the system in government hands. The data will only be stored on the smartphones of individual users, and digital identifiers will be optional.

Citizens can continue to use a national identity card if they decide that has been standard for decades in Switzerland.

For more relief of confidentiality concerns, a specific body seeking information about a person – as evidence of age or nationality, for example – will only be able to check for these specific details.

This comes after the United Kingdom government has announced plans to introduce its own digital identity card this week – which would be mandatory for employment – as part of the efforts to limit the number of illegal migrants living and working in the country.

The offered British digital identifier will have a smaller purpose than the Swiss version, but still provoked concerns about the privacy and security of the data.

Proponents of the Swiss system say that this will make life much easier than everyone, which will allow a number of bureaucratic procedures – from receiving a telephone contract to proving that you are adult enough to buy a bottle of wine – to happen quickly online.

Opponents of digital identity cards, which have collected enough signatures to force another referendum on the matter, claim that the measure can still undermine individual confidentiality.

They also fear that despite the new restrictions on how the data is collected and stored, it can still be used to track people and for marketing purposes.

Switzerland has a long tradition of protecting the privacy of its citizens. Bank secrecy laws, which are already very diluted, are intended to protect the individual’s personal finances from the curious eyes of the state.

For years, Google Street View has been controversial in Switzerland – and even today, after a Federal Court decision in Switzerland, images made near schools, refugees, hospitals or prisons must be automatically blurred before they go online.