The \u201cphone home\u201d debate over digital identity systems that could use server retrieval continues, as Germany\u2019s government faces questions about data protection and traceability in its European Digital Identity (EUDI)-compliant digital wallet.<\/p>\n
A report from Heise says<\/a> that civil rights organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Epicenter.works have expressed concern that issuing authorities for digital IDs such as mobile drivers licenses (mDL) could have the ability to track their use through so-called phone home models<\/a>.<\/p>\n In server retrieval, when a request is made, an access token ends up going back to the issuing authority infrastructure to retrieve data. In a recent webinar from Dock Labs, Andrew Hughes, VP of global standards for FaceTec, explains that, at a very high level, server retrieval<\/a> is exactly what it sounds like: \u201csimply online data retrieval from an internet server.\u201d<\/p>\n But allowing relying parties to \u201ccall back\u201d to issuing parties means those issuing parties now know where the ID is being used \u2013 opening up the capability for a sort of soft surveillance.<\/p>\n The worries have kicked off a campaign, No Phone Home<\/a>, which aims to sound the alarm that mDLs can comply with the international standard and still represent a major surveillance risk.<\/p>\n A specific concern of critics is that the ISO\/IEC mDL\/mDOC 18013-5<\/a> standard, which \u201cvirtually pre-installs such a server retrieval option,\u201d is \u201cprescribed in the reference architecture for the EUDI wallet<\/a> and is also widely used in North America.\u201d They don\u2019t want supposed flaws with international standards baked into European systems.<\/p>\n The German government, meanwhile, insists that its system does not phone home. According to the lead digital ministry, \u201cthe wallet planned in Germany for the EUDI will only use direct communication between the corresponding app and the receiving verifier.\u201d<\/p>\n In this \u2013 the device retrieval model \u2013 the relying party requests specific claims or attributes directly from an app on a mobile device, and the app provides whatever data the user chooses to share.<\/p>\n \u201cThe German wallet<\/a> is designed in such a way that signed data is used, the government assures,\u201d says the report. \u201cThis means that the issuing authority is not involved in the ID card process. This principle of data sovereignty and purpose limitation is guaranteed by a targeted technical architecture, open standards and comprehensive data protection regulations. This ensures that the movements and activities of users cannot be tracked or disclosed by the issuing authority.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\tArticle Topics<\/p>\n data privacy<\/a> \u00a0|\u00a0 digital ID<\/a> \u00a0|\u00a0 digital wallets<\/a> \u00a0|\u00a0 EU Digital Identity Wallet<\/a> \u00a0|\u00a0 Germany<\/a> \u00a0|\u00a0 ISO 18013-5<\/a> \u00a0|\u00a0 mDL (mobile driver’s license)<\/a> \u00a0|\u00a0 No Phone Home<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tLatest Biometrics News<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSep 8, 2025, 1:22 pm EDT\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n A firm claiming to provide \u201cdouble blind\u201d age assurance services to pornography sites adapting to France\u2019s online safety law has\u2026<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSep 8, 2025, 12:49 pm EDT\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Noteworthy among the most recent submissions to the Proprietary Fingerprint Template (PFT) Evaluation by the U.S. National Institute of Standards\u2026<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSep 8, 2025, 12:36 pm EDT\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n The Romanian government is reducing the number of electronic identity cards it had planned to distribute for free, potentially risking\u2026<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSep 8, 2025, 11:53 am EDT\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n A group of American crypto investors believe that World\u2019s iris biometrics can provide the universal foundation for digital identity that\u2026<\/p>\n
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