On a recent trip I tried to log in to the free wifi network at a major European airport to check my emails and social networks. The first step was to "log-in with my Facebook or Google ID". I was wondering – what happens if you don't have such an ID (answer: the fine print allows for a lengthy sign-on process without such an ID). And secondly: what personal data are they going to use here, and for what purpose?

In order to empower consumers and to safeguard principles of competition, consumer protection and data protection, the Communication on Online Platforms and the Digital Single Market said that the Commission will further promote interoperability actions, including through issuing principles and guidance on eID interoperability at the latest by 2017. The aim is to encourage online platforms to recognise other eID means — in particular those notified under the eIDAS Regulation — that offer the same or higher assurance as their own.

The policy goal of this commitment is two-fold. Firstly, it is to allow both private and business users to take greater control of how their cross-platform data is shared. Secondly, where identification and authentication are mutually agreed by both parties, the eID framework can offer the only privacy-respecting EU-wide authentication scheme. In case you don't have an eID card for you or for your business, anyone can get one in Estonia, a pioneer in digital services.

In many cases, businesses that use intermediary online platforms want to be sure that their counterpart is indeed the natural or the legal person one claims to be, for example in order to minimise the risk of fraudulent transactions.

Individual users want to protect their personal data as best as possible. In this context, it is recommended that they use different username and password combinations for each platform/website. However, as this is quite inconvenient it has become a frequent practice to use one’s platform profile for accessing a range of websites and services. This in itself poses both security and data protection risks as it often involves non-transparent exchanges and cross-linkages of personal data between various online platforms and websites.

As a remedy, in order to keep identification both simple and secure, individual and business users should be able to choose the credentials by which they want to identify or authenticate themselves. In particular, online platforms should accept credentials issued or recognised by national public authorities, such as electronic or mobile IDs, bank cards, etc.

This could bring benefits not only to users, but also to the online platforms themselves and here are examples of such possible benefits:

For online platforms

• eID means issued or recognised by national public authorities provide the possibility to safely enrol users and quickly validate their identity, and mitigate the potential risks attributed to unverified users. Registering with their real identity is often part of the terms and conditions that the users sign upon registration.

• This is a good solution especially in areas like travel, banking, rentals or other transactions where proving the “true identity” is important. E.g. for payment platforms, authenticating merchant identities reduces the risk of having a fraudulent merchant trying to generate illegal revenue.

• Platforms often use various complex tools to analyse user data and behaviour in order to detect identities which are not real. Of course this comes at a cost and, in addition, the effectiveness is not 100%. With the use of eID, individual users are identified with a much higher effectiveness.

• The cost of securely protecting identity data is removed as this is done by the identity provider. Identity data indeed neither needs to be collected nor retained, as each authentication involves the sending of a unique identifier to guarantee correct record matching ("querying of third-party identity databases").

• The use of eID means may increase the user acquisition rate by enabling users to trust and know that they are interacting with real people (or genuine legal entities) who have been verified to be the person they claim to be. It can also lead to multiplication of traffic and transactions by increasing users’ feeling of trust. The more the users trust other users, the more they’ll interact with them through a platform.

For businesses

• The use of government issued/recognised credentials can help establish mutual trust between participants in a transaction, by ensuring that each knows the real identity of the other, thus minimising risks of fraud and consequently of financial and reputational damages.

• Some online marketplaces enforce sale quotas on new merchants in order to reduce risks. By creating an account with his real identity in a marketplace a merchant may have such quotas reduced.

• A trusted environment may lead to an increased traffic and number of transactions, and thus increase turnover and profits.

For individual users

• An eID can enhance users' privacy as it limits the need to always, and repeatedly, provide personal data.

• It gives citizens control of their identity – they decide when to present the credential and when not to.

• It brings more convenience as it reduces the number of usernames and passwords for the user to remember.

• It enables more efficient and secure access, provides a higher level of online safety, stronger protection against identity theft and fraudulent use compared to the simple username/password combinations.

• It allows cross-border identification, which is in unison with the nature of online platforms.

We would like to hear your views on this. To what extent the above would be real benefits for you. Are there others? What could be the principles we could jointly agree on to enable eID use in online platforms?

Feel free to express your views directly in the comments sections below, by contacting us at CNECT-EGOVERNMENT-AND-TRUST@ec.europa.eu.