"... almost no government has the IT capacity and resources to single-handedly develop an eID quickly and to the appropriate standards." Bullshit. We're talking identity management here. Any government that can't handle that internally doesn't deserve to exist. What that's really about is feathering the nests of tech industry donors (and/or the non-tech middlemen or middlewomen who seem to grow like weeds around the tech sector). A handful of IdM SMEs with serious field experience could set it up in six months: assuming they had sufficient backing from their government employer to overcome static at Layer 8 of the OSI Model, you know,"politics".
Switzerland votes against electronic ID system provided by private companies
81–90 of 423 posts
Re: Switzerland votes against electronic ID system provided by private companies
#82They are also incredibly xenophobic (i.e. Japanese levels).
Care to expand this? I went to Switzerland once (I was young, 20ish) and I spent only one day at Geneva. It didn't look xenophobic, but very strict. I am interested in knowing more about this, thanks!
Most people who travel to japan as tourists don't see the underlying xenophobia either, and that's very well documented. As far as xenophobia towards non-swiss - I think the popular referendum to add a constitutional ban on minarets in their country is a good example of how that reared its head in somewhat recent history.
However, the corporate culture that is much more liberal in Geneva is very different than the vast majority of the country as well. I felt more welcome there than in a few places I visited in nearby Germany.
Re: Switzerland votes against electronic ID system provided by private companies
#83This is bad populism. It's understandable people fear Google/FB etc., but an entity contracted by the state to do digital ID services is not going to be selling your phone number if doing so would put them out of business and land them in jail. Sadly, the notion of basic digital ID would be very useful for so many things and maybe even help with privacy if content providers switched to this kind id vs. social logins.…
The entity in question does not have the best reputation.
"The risk of data abuse by commercial providers would undermine the effort to make digitalisation more democratic, they say."
It's as though citizens have no understanding of how contracts, oversight and regulations work.
If the government requires certain parameters to be kept, they will be.
The notion that these ID providers are going to 'abuse the data' is conspiratorially absurd to the extent that basic information control is written into the process.
If the financial incentives for 'abuse' don't exist, then really it's a matter of operational capability and pragmatism, in which case, private sector is an ok choice, just as it is for so many other things.
The government could feasibly do it, but there's no reason it can't be outsourced.
It's a bit short-sighted.
Re: Switzerland votes against electronic ID system provided by private companies
#84Almost every politician wants more power over citizens. That is why a binding popular referendum is necessary in cases like these. Congrats to the Swiss people, I am a little bit jealous.
I really admire the swiss political system & culture. It's has all the modern postulates of liberty & governance that most countries are striving for without the "scam orchestration"
As a Swiss, the political system is to me the best aspect about the country. It makes it so, that it is almost impossible for anyone to obtain enough power to really abuse it.
It also make any change, for the good or the bad, very very slow, which can be frustrating at times. So if stability is not high up on your list of life’s values it might not be the best place to be.
Re: Switzerland votes against electronic ID system provided by private companies
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really admire the swiss political system & culture. It's has all the modern postulates of liberty & governance that most countries are striving for without the "scam orchestration"
The banning of minarets is a data point against this liberty.
They're also about to ban niqab / burka.
Re: Switzerland votes against electronic ID system provided by private companies
#86"... almost no government has the IT capacity and resources to single-handedly develop an eID quickly and to the appropriate standards." Bullshit. We're talking identity management here. Any government that can't handle that internally doesn't deserve to exist. What that's really about is feathering the nests of tech industry donors (and/or the non-tech middlemen or middlewomen who seem to grow like weeds around the…
Indeed. Someone’s making excuses to support a privatized deployment.
Re: Switzerland votes against electronic ID system provided by private companies
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really admire the swiss political system & culture. It's has all the modern postulates of liberty & governance that most countries are striving for without the "scam orchestration"
As a Swiss, the political system is to me the best aspect about the country. It makes it so, that it is almost impossible for anyone to obtain enough power to really abuse it. It also make any change, for the good or the bad, very very slow, which can be frustrating at times. So if stability is not high up on your list of life’s values it might not be the best place to be.
So basically Switzerland is the Debian Buster of the world?
Re: Switzerland votes against electronic ID system provided by private companies
#88They are also incredibly xenophobic (i.e. Japanese levels).
As a datapoint: Switzerland has the highest proportion of foreigners in Europe (25%; with the exception of Luxembourg, and perhaps some microstates like Vatican, Monte Carlo, don't know about those). So I don't think there's any comparison at all to Japan (2%).
Are the "foreigners" mostly other Europeans?
Re: Switzerland votes against electronic ID system provided by private companies
#89Meanwhile in Germany: "Hey, wouldn't it be so swell if people needed to provide their ID when signing up for email accounts and instant messengers?"
It's currently only a request by the ministry of interior, not actually in the discussed law, isn't it? It's not like switzerland politics didn't propose the thing that's been voted out, either.
Re: Switzerland votes against electronic ID system provided by private companies
#90They are also incredibly xenophobic (i.e. Japanese levels).
> They are also incredibly xenophobic The Swiss are xenophobic? Eh? They welcome people from all over the world to come together to work towards peace and humanitarianism in their country. They host the only truly international humanitarian organisation in the world. They helped build many of the institutions that try to reduce conflict. Calling them xenophobic is bizarre.
>Calling them xenophobic is bizarre.
You don't think the referendums on banning minarets and burqas are... Xenophobic in any form?