Why not SuisseID?

Providing a long term digital identification method - this is one of the aims of the SWITCH e-identity project. Students and alumni should have a method to access to their personal data for a very long time, ideally for their entire life.

One potential candidate for an electronic identity is SuisseID. SuisseID is basically a smart card with a qualified certificate that allows a person to digitally sign documents, to securely log in to online services and to grant access to personal attributes like the address or the age. Data encryption is not supported. The SuisseID is standardized by the swiss government and issued by private partners like the Swiss Post, Swisscom or QuoVadis.

The good news about SuisseID is, that it is legally regulated by the swiss government and that there is an existing infrastructure for issuing smart cards, for support and running technical services. But it also has a few issues: the SuisseID is quite expensive for users and it hasn't been widely accepted yet. Probably the most important downside is that it is difficult to find applications of the SuisseID where it is really useful for a person. Just having an alternative login to a web site is not a killer application.

Still, it is worth observing the development of SuisseID. For our case in the e-identity project it might particularly make sense as one among many identity sources that are linked to a single person.

Rolf Brugger