Privacy concern over EU’s plan to introduce ID cards for social media

EU’s Plan for Extending National ID Cards Use to Social Media Actually Deprives Users of their Right to Online Privacy!

We have been informing you all along regarding the way government institutions are constantly thinking of ways to spy upon our internet browsing and social media communications. This latest news is simply a re-affirmation of the fact that governments are trying hard to invade our privacy. Previously we informed our readers that the European Union (EU) is working on a continent-wide applicable policy relating to the use of ID cards for using social media accounts. Later, Breitbart London also confirmed the news. Now, we are the first ones to tell you that it is official as the news is out.

According to the European Commission website, EU wants to implement a policy urging users to only use the state-issued National ID cards to log into their social media accounts, e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and believe it or not, even Uber.

The EU’s Digital Single Market vice president and ex-communist Andrus Ansip from Estonia is the one behind this unreasonable idea of using national identity cards for logging into social media platforms and other online services.

Estonia is a former communist state and probably the only Baltic country that has a highly developed National ID card system in the whole world. On its state website it is described that the National ID card is “much more than simply a legal picture ID, the mandatory national card serves as the digital access card for all of Estonia’s secure e-services.”

The information was made public through a leaked document (Pdf) titled ‘Online Platforms and the Digital Single Market’ that belonged to the EU and was prepared on 25th May. In the documents, it was identified that the commission will soon be asking citizens to use their national ID cards for account logins. This rule will be applied all across the Europe.

It must be noted that the information has now been uploaded on the official website of the European Commissions as well after it was leaked. The website also gave the reason behind this policy, which is that:

“In particular, online platforms need to accept credentials issued or recognized by national public authorities, such as electronic ID cards, citizens cards, bank cards or mobile IDs… for every consumer to have a multitude of username and password combinations is not only inconvenient but becomes a security risk.”

The new policy regulations, as per the European Commission website, will come into effect under the eIDAS Regulation. It will be implemented in the 28 Member States of the EU and will replace the eSignature Directive formulated about 15 years back. In fact, it is being touted as a policy aimed at modernizing the trust services’ legal framework.

Under the new policy, the EU will encourage the use of national E-ID cards for accessing e-services but it won’t make it mandatory.

However, the policy is receiving immense criticism from members of European Parliament and other political and related sectors. Diane James, European Parliament member and spokesman of Home Affairs for the UK Independence Party states that this policy is more like an “intrusive and seemingly authoritarian EU interference in social media and the internet,” which in James’ opinion isn’t new.