We need simpler solutions for people without their own BankID

Norway’s digital systems can leave people unable to manage basic parts of their lives when illness or disability prevents them from renewing identification in person, Stø chief executive Øyvind Westby Brekke writes.

He points to the case of Ingvar Berg-Hansen in Nordland, who cannot reach a passport office because of health problems. Without a renewed passport, he is left without BankID and cannot handle essential personal matters.

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We need simpler solutions to help those who do not have their own BankID.

Brekke says the system is not good enough when people end up in that position. Stø’s ambition, he writes, is to make BankID available to as many people over the age of 12 as possible. But he rejects lowering the security requirements for identity checks. BankID provides access to bank accounts, health information, public services and legally binding signatures, so providers must verify users to a high standard.

He also seeks to correct what he calls a misunderstanding about the rules. Requirements for physical attendance and a valid passport or national identity card do not apply only to BankID, he says. They come from the authorities and apply to all private providers of electronic identification at the highest security level. The same rules would apply to a public e-ID at that level.

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Digital exclusion is a societal problem, but the solution cannot be to lower the requirements for secure identification.

The answer, Brekke argues, is to make it easier for people to receive help when they cannot obtain or use their own BankID. Children and young people may depend on their parents, while older and sick people may need relatives to assist them. Stø supports the authorities’ work on a national power-of-attorney arrangement that would register designated helpers to act for others, but he says the process is moving too slowly.

Norway has gained from extensive digitization, Brekke writes. It should also aim to accommodate people whose lives do not fit the rules now in place.

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We need solutions that make it easier to help those who cannot obtain or use their own BankID.