PARTNER NEWS: Customers of Pax Technology, the world’s leading payment terminal solutions provider, can now provide merchants with access to a white label version of Dejamobile’s ReadyToTap Payment for Merchants solution, enabling them to accept contactless payments on standard NFC smartphones and tablets.

“The app will be available on the Paxstore platform as part of the Pax software offering in the EMEA region, enabling dedicated payment terminals and off-the-shelf devices to be managed on a single system,” Paxstore marketing manager Conor Devane explains.

Full details are available in the Pax Technology press release below. Readers attending Money20/20 Europe in Amsterdam will be able to see a demo of ReadyToTap Payment for Merchants on Dejamobile’s booth, Stand D60 in the Business France pavilion.

Pax Technology partners with Dejamobile to let merchants accept contactless payments on NFC devices was written by Sarah Clark and published by NFCW.

Chinese e-commerce platform Meituan is to enable customers of its bicycle hire service to pay for their rides with the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) while offline using an NFC-enabled digital yuan hard wallet.

The company is also distributing ‘red envelopes’ containing 10 digital yuan (US$1.55) to customers via its app that can be used to make rental payments for its bicycles in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu and other major Chinese cities.

“The goal is to promote a reduction in carbon emissions whilst promoting the digital yuan,” according to a Ledger Insights report.

“After registration, users will immediately receive a 10 yuan red envelope and it’s possible to get cashback via additional red envelopes for their daily riding.

“Meituan is [also] cooperating with the Bank of China to launch an offline NFC payment function to hire its bicycles. Unlike the previous method of scanning the QR code, users with a digital yuan hard wallet can unlock the bicycle while offline and without a phone.”

Other use cases for the digital yuan due to be tested soon include payments for highway tolls and parking, local and international hotel bookings, and telephone charges.

Blockchain issuance

The continuing expansion of trials for specific CBDC use cases comes as the People’s Bank of China reveals that its Digital Currency Research Institute (DCRI) is now actively exploring the use of blockchain technology for the issuance of digital yuan.

The DCRI is “building a unified distributed ledger based on the blockchain at the issuance layer, improving the efficiency of reconciliation; at the same time, with the support of the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Centre, the multilateral central bank digital currency Bridge Project explores the use of distributed ledgers; it has also built a trade finance blockchain platform,” DCRI deputy director Di Gang told the 2021 China Digital Finance Forum, Sina news agency reports.

Gang also pointed out, however, that blockchain technology is “not a panacea”, that “it is not very suitable for scenarios with high concurrency and high privacy and performance requirements”, and that the DCRI’s project represents “the starting point for the use of hybrid technology architecture for digital renminbi research and development”.

“The compatibility of blockchain and traditional technology integration is not high and there are technical frictions,” Gang said.

“It is necessary to strengthen the research on the inheritance and improvement of blockchain based on traditional technology and to strengthen the integration and innovation of new technologies.”

The People’s Bank of China issued its latest digital yuan trial progress report in July. 

Chinese bike hire service to let customers use an NFC digital currency wallet to pay for their ride was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

A “growing number” of Europeans would support the creation of national digital currencies with the specific aim of asserting “some monetary independence” from the European Union, according to a survey commissioned by Euronews.

The survey shows that while the issue of European countries developing autonomous central bank digital currencies (CBDC) independently of the EU “drew a mixed reaction”, support for the idea is strongest in Italy (backed by 41% of respondents), Greece (40%), Estonia (39%) and Spain (37%). The Netherlands was the only country where the percentage of those opposing the idea (37%) exceeded those who supported it (18%).

Opinion in Germany was divided equally, with 30% backing the idea and 30% against it, while more than one in four survey participants said they would neither support nor oppose such a move.

For countries in the eurozone, however, “membership of the single currency could stop any plans for national e-currencies in their tracks,” Wilfried Martens Centre research officer Dimitar Lilkov told Euronews.

“Eurozone countries who want to make use of a digital currency would be bound to a potential digital euro, run by the European Central Bank in coordination with the eurozone banking system.

“For a country like Greece or the Netherlands to opt for a national digital currency different from the euro (a hypothetical e-drachma or e-guilder), this would mean seceding from the eurozone. This will not happen.

“Non-eurozone EU members would, by contrast, be relatively free to explore potential digital national currencies.”

The survey of attitudes to cryptocurrencies and financial regulation was conducted by Redfield and Wilton Strategies on behalf of Euronews in August, with some 31,000 participants across 12 EU member states: Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

The European Central Bank officially launched its digital euro project in July.

Survey: ‘Growing number’ of Europeans support creation of national digital currencies independently of EU was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

Google Pay is preparing to launch in Israel by the end of 2021, following a deal reached by Israeli credit card company Isracard with Google to support payments made with its card via the mobile wallet, local media outlets report.

The announcement comes after Google was reported to have signed similar agreements with Israel’s Bank Leumi and Max’s credit card unit earlier in September.

“These agreements, and those with other banks that are likely to follow, will allow users of the Google Pay digital wallet to make payments using their cellphone at stores with contactless EMV payment terminals,” according to The Jerusalem Post.

“Android users already have digital wallet solutions available from most major credit card issuers and banks, including Bank Hapoalim’s Bit and Bank Leumi’s Pepper.

“However, Google’s entry into the market will likely generate a further buzz and represent another tipping point for the technology’s adoption after Apple Pay’s launch.

“Approximately 70% of smartphones in Israel run on Google’s Android platform.”

Apple Pay went live in Israel in May. Google Pay officially launched its app in Austria earlier this week.

Google Pay to go live in Israel this year? was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

Nearly two in three consumers in the UK (62%) would now prefer to use their payment card through a mobile wallet compared with 31% last year, according to a survey commissioned by Samsung Pay.

The survey also found that, although 56% of participants still use physical payment cards, 90% believe that during the Covid-19 pandemic making contactless payments with a smartphone or smartwatch is more convenient and 86% say that using mobile payment methods makes them feel safe.

Although the findings identify the Covid-19 pandemic as one of the key drivers of the shift towards mobile payments and reveal that, during lockdown in 2020, almost half of UK consumers (46%) were willing to make digital payments, they also show that one in five (20%) also believe that making mobile payments from smartphones and other smart devices is better for the environment.

Nearly half of participants (42%) also agreed that it is inconvenient to carry multiple physical cards and more than half (53%) said they would be happy to no longer receive physical payment cards from their bank.

“This shift is indicative of the way customers are migrating towards mobile payments as confidence and convenience grows in more digital forms of transaction,” says Samsung’s Teg Dosanjh.

“The reality is retail looks and feels different these days, and customers are savvy about ways to keep themselves safe in store whilst speeding up transactions at the till.

“Mobile payments are not only more convenient and more hygienic, but they can offer added benefits in terms of cashback and rewards.”

Nearly two-thirds of UK consumers would now prefer to make card payments from a mobile wallet was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

Customers of DBS Bank in Singapore can now lock or unlock their debit or credit cards, enable or disable certain types of transaction — including contactless and mobile payments — and set a monthly spending limit for their card accounts from their digital banking app in real time.

The bank has introduced six new self-managed card payment control features to “provide an additional layer of protection to customers to safeguard their card accounts and protect against fraudulent transactions,” DBS says.

The new security features allow cardholders to:

• Temporarily lock their card if they misplace it or think that it’s been stolen — and unlock it again for immediate use if they find it;
• Enable or disable online ecommerce transactions on all local and international websites;
• Activate or deactivate the card for use in face-to-face transactions overseas;
• Switch on or off contactless card and mobile payments at local and overseas merchants;
• Enable or disable cash advance transactions with their credit card;
• Set a monthly spending limit lower than their current credit limit.

“Principal cardholders will be able to manage access and stipulate spend limits on their own cards, as well as on their supplementary cards,” DBS explains.

“In addition, customers will receive instant alerts whenever a transaction is blocked due to pre-set controls, which provides them a greater peace of mind and an enhanced level of protection from fraud.”

Pilot success

DBS began piloting the new card payment control features in August and says that some 20,000 customers have already activated the service, with “the ability to disable cash advances, as well as overseas ‘face to face’ transactions [being] the top-most popular functions”.

“Safeguarding our customers’ interests and money is our top priority,” DBS’s Anthony Seow adds.

“As people increasingly turn to digital payments and online shopping, it remains paramount that we have in place robust security measures to protect our customers.

“The new self-managed card payment control features serve as multiple locks that cardholders can choose to activate in order to block unauthorised transactions.

“They add to the existing data analytics tools, as well as monitoring and surveillance systems that form our multi-layered defence to effectively screen, thwart and deter fraudulent activities.”

DBS Bank lets Singapore customers self-manage card security options in real time was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

Ticket holders attending concerts and other events at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver in the US state of Colorado can now gain entry to the entertainment venue by scanning their palm rather than their mobile ticket or ID.

Identity-based ticketing provider AXS has incorporated Amazon’s Amazon One biometric palm-recognition technology into standalone contactless ticketing pedestals at the open-air amphitheatre, enabling ticket holders to register for the service in “less than a minute” and then gain entry to an event “in less than a second or so”.

“Upon entering an event at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, fans can either scan their digital ticket or choose to link their palm with Amazon One to AXS’s mobile ID technology by enrolling at the pedestal,” AXS explains.

“Fans can enrol at a dedicated station just before they enter the amphitheatre, and at a second enrolment station inside the amphitheatre for future AXS events.

“Enrolment takes less than a minute, and fans will have the option to enrol with just one palm or both.

“When a fan is ready to enter the amphitheatre using their palm, there is a dedicated entry line where Amazon One is enabled.”

The palm recognition system is currently available at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre only, but AXS says it is planning to introduce it at other locations “in the future”.

Amazon announced that it was exploring other potential use cases for Amazon One including stadium entry systems when it launched the biometric device in its own stores in September 2020.

The retail giant has now rolled out the device at more than 50 of its own retail outlets across 15 states as well as in the capital, Washington DC.

US entertainment venue lets ticket holders gain entry to events with their palm was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

More than three in four cashless payments made in Germany (77%), Austria (80%) and Switzerland (82%) are now contactless — a rise of more than 35 percentage points from an average of 40% across the three countries in June 2019, according to figures published by Nordic payments processor Nets.

The findings also show that the retail outlets recording the highest contactless payment rates in the three countries are supermarkets (87%) and bakeries (94%) “where almost everyone pays contactlessly when paying with a card or smartphone”.

The increase puts Germany, Austria and Switzerland — also known as the DACH region — “on a level field with the Nordics”, where average contactless adoption rose from 56% in January 2020 to 75% in January 2021, with Norway seeing “extreme growth” from 35% to 79% over the same period, Nets says.

“The pandemic has significantly accelerated a steadily growing trend in the DACH regions,” says Nets CEO Robert Hoffman.

“It was inevitable that Germany, Austria and Switzerland would ultimately achieve high levels of contactless payment adoption, but without this catalyst, it would have taken years to reach where it is today.

“An increasing number of merchants here are now offering and actively encouraging tap-and-go, which is becoming the norm for consumers.”

Nets first reported a record surge in contactless payments in Nordic countries during the pandemic in November 2020.

More than three quarters of cashless transactions in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are now contactless was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

California has released the code for both the front end and middle tier of its Digital Covid-19 Vaccine Record into the public domain to enable other US states to deploy their own digital vaccination record systems more quickly.

The US state’s digital record system allows residents to access a digital copy of their Covid-19 vaccination record via their Android or iOS device and uses the interoperable Smart Health Card framework so that the data held on the record can be checked and verified by scanning a QR code with a Smart Health Card reader.

“California’s Digital Vaccine Record is an implementation of the Smart Health Card framework, also built on an open-source framework,” California Department of Technology says.

“The code we’re releasing today is everything we built to provide a front-end form that lets California residents submit a request for their digital vaccine record, and a middle tier that passes those queries to the back end (in our case, a Snowflake instance).

“If there’s a match, the middle tier returns a Smart Health Card-formatted QR code, along with the individual’s name and vaccination information.

“Every state in the United States operates their own immunization registry. If a state is interested in offering a service similar to what we launched in California, they can take our code, connect it to their own back end, and generate digital vaccine records for their residents.

“This won’t be plug-and-play exactly — it will still require some work to make the connection between the middle tier and the state’s back end — but we hope it will save states some time.”

To date, three other US states — Hawaii, Louisiana and New York — have launched digital vaccination record systems using the Smart Health Card framework, as have a number of individual counties in the state of Maryland.

US residents who have been vaccinated at Smart Health Card-supporting hospitals, healthcare providers, pharmacies and grocery stores elsewhere in the country can also access their digital vaccine record using the Smart Health Card system.

California introduced its Digital Covid-19 Vaccine Record portal in June and is making the front-end and middle-tier code available to other states via the GitHub development platform.

A coalition of US technology and healthcare providers originally launched the Vaccination Credential Initiative to enable digital access to vaccination records using the Smart Health Cards specification in January.

California releases code for digital Covid-19 vaccine records to support deployment in other US states was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

Google Pay has officially launched its app for owners of both Android smartphones and Wear OS smartwatches in Austria.

Austrian customers of neobanks and fintechs including Curve, Monese, N26, Revolut and Viva Wallet have been able to use Google Pay via their mobile banking app since November 2020, but Google has yet to confirm which additional banks and card issuers will now be supporting the service in the country.

The launch comes as Google Pay has also announced that it is adding support for contactless payments on Wear OS smartwatches in Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Portugal, Romania and Singapore.

This brings the total number of countries where Wear OS smartwatch owners can use Google Pay to 37, following the addition of support in a further 16 countries in August.

Apple Pay went live in Austria in April 2019.

• NFCW maintains a list of major OEM Pay systems and the territories where they are live and available for public use.

Google Pay goes live in Austria was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

Moscow Metro is to enable passengers travelling on all the Russian capital’s metro lines to make contactless payments for their fare at station turnstiles using its FacePay biometric ticketing system.

The transport network began testing the system with 1,000 registered passengers on its Line 4 services in August, adding the Solntsevskaya and Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya lines and expanding the pilot group to 7,000 passengers later that month.

A total of four Moscow Metro lines now support FacePay payments, with more than 15,000 passengers currently using the system.

“Facial recognition testing for fare payment is in full swing,” says head of Moscow Department of Transport Maxim Liksutov.

“I have also registered myself, uploaded a photo through the application and as a test went through FacePay several dozen times — there was not a single error.

“The cameras work and the recognition technology itself is reliable. Soon we will connect all the remaining lines, and, as the Moscow mayor said, in October we will make it available on the entire metro.”

Moscow Metro to roll out biometric ticketing across entire network was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

Three quarters of German consumers (74%) want to be able to make digital payments at all shops, restaurants and other retail outlets, with that percentage rising to 87% among 18- to 29-year-olds, according to a survey by the Bitkom digital association.

The survey found that 75% of Germans aged 30 to 40 and 76% of those aged 50-64 support universally available cashless payment options at the point of sale and that “even among senior citizens aged 65 and over, a clear majority of 64% is in favour”.

“We need real freedom of choice when paying,” says Bitkom director Bernhard Rohleder.

“It’s not about getting rid of cash, but leaving customers free to decide how they want to pay at any location.

“Nobody should be forced to carry cash with them all the time.”

The survey of just over 1,000 German consumers aged over 18 was conducted in August 2021.

Three in four Germans want cashless payment options at every point of sale was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

French citizens will soon be able to verify their identity when accessing a range of secure online services — including opening a bank account, filing a tax return and paying for their health insurance — by scanning their updated Carte Nationale d’Identité Électronique (CNIE) eID card with their NFC-enabled smartphone.

The French government is introducing the functionality in order to enable holders of the new CNIE card to tap it on their mobile device in response to an authentication request made by any of 900 service providers connected to the FranceConnect platform.

At present, FranceConnect users verify their identity using the ID code and password for an account already registered and securely authenticated with one of six partner organisations: impots.gouv.fr, ameli.fr, Mobile Connect et Moi, MSA, Alicem or l’Identité Numérique La Poste.

The French government began a limited rollout of the new CNIE electronic identity cards in March 2021 before launching them nationally in August.

The card contains a contactless chip that stores a holder’s biometric data, including a photograph and two fingerprints, as well as an authenticating seal in the form of a QR code.

“According to the security rules imposed by the European regulation, the ministry wanted to add a certain number of devices in order to better protect the new identity card,” the Ministry of the Interior says. “Their objective is to ensure optimal protection of the personal data mentioned therein.”

“Particular attention is paid to the biometric data contained in the electronic component of the card: this data is stored in a highly secure compartment and access to it is specifically controlled.”

“The updated French national eID card… will enable French citizens to complete online transactions using their smartphone,” says Idemia, one of the technology providers contracted by the French government to develop the country’s digital identity system.

“Citizens will receive an authentication request on their smartphone. They will then place their CNIE on the back of their phone, which will communicate using NFC technology.”

“The mobile app will securely read and authenticate the personal data held in the card’s chip. Citizens will need to provide their consent before authentication.”

The system will comply with the European Union’s eIDAS regulations, “will protect citizens’ identity and will ensure that only the authorized citizen has control over it”. The French government introduced the Alicem digital identity service that enables citizens to use NFC passport reading to enrol themselves onto the system in October 2019.

French government to let citizens scan NFC eID cards to access secure online services was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

KNOWLEDGE CENTRE: NFC can be used to add value to an array of products that combine a main unit with a range of accessories or consumables, such as coffee machines and power tools, and to a wide variety of devices that are shared among multiple users, such as gym and laboratory equipment, ST explains in a new white paper available to download from the NFCW Knowledge Centre.

“NFC technology is perfectly suitable for addressing solutions requiring product/feature differentiation, dynamic product configuration, customer experience enrichment, user personalisation and brand recognition,” the paper explains.

“Its ubiquity, cost-effectiveness, energy harvesting and contactless communication capabilities grant several possibilities for manufacturers to add value to their product lines as well as to better serve their customers.

“Thanks to the combination of an NFC reader in the main unit and a static or dynamic NFC tag in the accessory, the whole product performs better, safer, and lets you provide a unique solution with a whole new range of capabilities to better improve the user experience and bring life to your brand.”

For devices that are shared among multiple users, NFC can be used to easily recognise the individual user and adjust settings automatically according to their individual preferences, ST adds.

As well as setting out the multiple benefits that NFC offers to brands operating in these markets, the paper also provides technical guidance on how NFC can be integrated by a manufacturer into their products.

Readers wanting to know more about how brands can use NFC readers and tags to create new user experiences can download ‘How can NFC add value to your brand and enhance the user experience?’ from the NFCW Knowledge Centre.

ST white paper explains how brands can use NFC to add value to their products was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

Consumers in Dubai can now use an app to gain access to Majid al Futtaim’s Carrefour City+ store in the Mall of the Emirates, select the products they want to purchase without needing to scan them and pay for them on their mobile phone without interacting with staff or using a checkout.

The store uses a system of cameras and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to track each customer’s activity, identify the products they choose and add them to that customer’s digital shopping basket.

Once they have left the store, customers are automatically charged for their purchases via the retailer’s app.

Majid al Futtaim has integrated “state of the art technology to identify thousands of products with pinpoint accuracy” into its first automated checkout-free store to provide “a fast, seamless and contactless experience” for customers and improve inventory management.

“Store access and shopping payment is enabled via the current MAF Carrefour App,” the company says.

“Once inside Carrefour City+, every item picked up by customers will then be automatically added to a digital shopping basket and the purchase will be completed by simply walking out.

“Not only is the shopping journey faster, but also completely contactless, with no store staff interaction necessary.”

Carrefour stores run by Majid Al Futtaim across the United Arab Emirates began enabling customers to scan their purchases and pay for them in-store using its Mobile Scan&Go feature integrated into the retailer’s app in December 2020.

Carrefour opens checkout-free store in Dubai was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

Citizens of Pakistan can now apply for a national ID card using a mobile app that enables them to scan the documents needed to support their application and verify their identity with their fingerprint and a photograph of their face from their smartphone.

The Pak-ID mobile app is available for both Android and iOS devices and has been launched by Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to allow Pakistani citizens — including those living abroad —  to complete their application remotely and without needing to visit a registration office.

“The mobile application is for the existing users of NADRA’s Pak-ID Portal to conveniently capture biometrics and documents using [their] smartphone camera. Photograph, fingerprints and documents can be captured against an application initiated on Pak-ID portal,” NADRA explains.

The app also enables users to pay their application fee online and arrange for home delivery of a physical ID card.

“The innovation will revolutionise the national ID ecosystem in Pakistan by providing public convenience,” local media outlet Dawn News reports NADRA’s Tariq Malik as saying at the app’s official launch.

“He said the digital dividends of such technology innovation would yield positive results in financial inclusion, ease of doing business and e-governance initiatives by offering remote identification and e-KYC [know-your-customer].

“The NADRA chairman said that it would open new vistas for businesses, allowing them to rapidly onboard users and provide modern password-less authentication.”

Pakistan lets citizens apply for national IDs from their smartphone was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

The total number of digital ticketing transactions worldwide will increase by 62% from 20.8bn in 2021 to 33.8bn in 2023, with bus and metro ticketing accounting for one in three (33%) of those transactions, according to a forecast by Juniper Research.

The researchers also predict that more than 23% of all global digital ticketing transactions will be contactless by 2026, compared with 10% in 2019.

“Contactless ticketing is thriving in the pandemic recovery,” the researchers say. “As many transit operators expanded their contactless rollouts mid-pandemic, this has accelerated digital ticketing adoption.

“The report predicts that as contactless payments accelerate via a permanent shift in consumer behaviour post-pandemic, this will be reflected in the ticketing space, with transit increasingly dominated by contactless ticketing.”

Forecast: Global digital ticketing transactions to top 33.8bn in 2023 was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

Two-fifths of US consumers (40%) still prefer to use cash and just under 40% of US businesses (39%) maintain a cash-only policy for purchases of less than US$20 “despite the availability of technology-driven forms of payment such as credit cards, debit cards and mobile wallets,” a survey by a division of WSFS Bank has found.

The survey also shows that more than half of respondents (51%) believe that “using cash helps them budget their money”, with that figure rising to 58% of the Generation Z demographic (aged 18-24), “52% of whom cite cash as their preferred payment method”.

“However, many respondents said they cap their cash purchases at $31, as 54% only carry $1-$50 in cash on them,” the researchers say.

“When asked what they use cash for, the most popular uses were: leaving tips (48%); purchasing fast food (44%); purchasing candy and snacks (37%); purchasing coffee (32%) and paying for gas (27%).”

“With many small purchases being paid for with cash, the majority (71%) of financial decision makers agreed that there is nothing worse than when someone pays for a small purchase with a big bill, like a $50 or $100,” the researchers add.

The survey of 1,500 US consumers aged 18 and over and 500 financial decision makers was conducted on behalf of WSFS’s Cash Connect cash logistic services division in June 2021.

The findings come as a forecast by Juniper Research published in July predicted growth of almost 300% in the total value of contactless transactions in the US over the next five years, while the 2021 Debit Issuer Study published in August identified a six-fold year-over-year growth in contactless debit card transactions at tap-and-go terminals in the US in 2020.

Two in five US consumers still cite cash as their preferred payment method was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

A research paper published by the University of Exeter in the UK identifies the lack of global standards as one of the key barriers to the successful implementation of digital and paper-based Covid-19 health status certificates worldwide.

A lack of trust in the solutions currently being introduced and the lack of a holistic approach to the development of health status certification are also obstacles that need to be addressed by measures including the appropriate governance of health data and the proactive protection of data privacy, the researchers say.

The paper also emphasises that Covid-19 certificates “should be available to all, not only those with high levels of digital literacy”, whilst highlighting the risk of fraud associated with paper-based documentation and the need for “secure applications and embedded technologies such as QR codes”.

‘Covid-19 health status certificates: Policy recommendations on data privacy and human rights’ is based on research conducted between December 2020 and March 2021 that included interviews with leading experts in digital identity and analysed initiatives to introduce Covid-19 health status certificates in countries such as the UK and the member states of the European Union. 

Important barrier

“The lack of global standards for Covid-19 health status certificates was identified as an important barrier to successful implementation,” the researchers say.

“Ten out of twenty experts interviewed for this project mentioned a need for widely accepted standards for Covid-19 certificates.

“Experts participating in the project’s workshops also pointed out that policymakers must learn from previous experience of implementing digital identity solutions — the lack of universal standards was a significant problem already back then.

“The experts have also highlighted the difficulties in achieving truly global standards in this area due to time constraints.”

At the same time, however, the paper notes that “the EU has progressed in establishing a common framework and setting up EU Digital Covid Certificates standards” and that the European Commission “has issued technical specifications and developed reference software and applications for issuing, storing and verifying certificates”.

“Further research will be needed to evaluate the uptake of the EU Digital Covid Certificates by individuals at the EU level and the impact these certificates will have on creating global standards in the context of international travel outside of the EU,” the paper adds. 

Key recommendations

Based on their findings, the researchers make six specific recommendations that will enable the implementation of Covid-19 health status certificates which address concerns relating to the use of “technology and health data in public health emergencies”. Policymakers should:

• Ensure the availability and affordability of Covid-19 tests and vaccines to the whole population to avoid creating a two-tiered society in which only the wealthy have access to mobility and services.
• Ensure that Covid-19 health status certificates are only used during the pandemic and their use is discontinued once the World Health Organization declares that Covid-19 is no longer a public health emergency of international concern.
• Ensure that Covid-19 health status certificate providers, whether from the private or public sector, abide by basic data protection principles, including lawfulness, fairness and transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity and confidentiality, and accountability.
• Ensure that Covid-19 health status certificate providers build data protection into the design of these certificates by default, thus contributing towards mitigating known risks to data privacy.
• Ensure that Covid-19 health certificate providers maintain the confidentiality and security of the information collected and processed. They should prevent any unauthorised access, accidental loss, damage or destruction of the data.
• Request that Covid-19 health status certificate providers undertake data protection impact assessments (DPIAs) before implementing specific solutions.

The ‘Covid-19 health status certificates’ research paper can be downloaded from the University of Exeter website here.

England rolled out digital vaccine certificates on the NHS app and Turkey introduced a vaccine ID card in May, while the EU Digital Covid Certificate went live across the EU in July following an initial launch in seven member states in June.

Research identifies lack of global standards as key barrier to implementing Covid-19 health status certificates was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.

Consumers can now prove their identity when picking up parcels and other deliveries at post offices across the UK using a digital identity app rather than a paper document such as their passport or driving licence.

The Post Office EasyID app is available for both Apple and Android devices and can also be used at some 25,000 participating post offices, convenience stores and other retail outlets when purchasing age-restricted items such as lottery tickets and medicines, as well as for completing online transactions.

Once they have downloaded the app, users can create a digital ID secured by a five-digit PIN by scanning a document such as their passport, driving licence or national ID card and verifying their identity using face recognition technology by taking a selfie with their mobile device.

“The app will make life easier for millions of people who buy items online from retailers and get them delivered to their local post office for collection,” the Post Office says.

“It is also handy for those who miss a home mail delivery and choose to get it delivered to a local post office instead, especially since many post offices are often open in the evening.”

“As governments and businesses across the UK seek to facilitate easier confirmation of identity digitally in order to access services and to help combat fraud, the Post Office’s EasyID app provides people with a free-to-use service that can be used to control with whom and how they share their identity,” it adds.

The Post Office also recently signed a deal with European parcel delivery service DPD to enable customers to “click and collect” parcels from its offices across the UK. The service is due to go live in the next three months.

UK retailers began exploring the possibility of using facial recognition technology to confirm a customer’s age following a call issued in March by the UK Home Office, inviting businesses to test digital IDs and other “innovative approaches to age verification”.

UK Post Office lets customers verify their identity when collecting deliveries with digital ID app was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.