Soon, the Samsung Galaxy S20 could replace national IDs in Germany

It’s inevitable that at some point in the future, physical identification documents will also be digitalised. While there are certainly privacy and security concerns to address first, the idea for a mobile device to replace physical copies is one that has already been seen—for example, Samsung Pay and credit cards.

Now, Samsung has announced that German citizens could soon be using the Galaxy S20 as a replacement for the physical, national ID. According to the Korean company, the electronic ID (eID)-enabled Galaxy S20 is the first device to meet the strict security requirements of the German government and the European Union, with users in Germany to receive the feature sometime later this year.

Of course, concerns over security and privacy are certainly still valid, although Samsung’s solution is one that relies on a hardware-based security architecture to ensure security. Four bodies were involved in the project: Samsung, the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Bundesdruckerei (bdr), and Deutsche Telekom Security GmbH.

Additionally, Samsung has integrated a “highly secure” chip in the Galaxy S20 that ensures that any private information is stored locally on the device, with end-to-end encryption to protect data. This means that only the ID issuing organisation (the German authorities, in this case) and your Galaxy S20 can access the data.

An embedded Secure Element (eSE) also functions as a “Digital Safe” of sorts, which Samsung says prevents malicious parties from stealing the eID information—even if they have the actual phone in their hands.

All of that security has landed the Galaxy S20 CC EAL 6+ certification, with Samsung expecting to see other EU member states adopt similar technological infrastructure soon. And it’s only the beginning, the Korean company predicts:

“This is only the beginning. Similar to contactless payments a few years ago, consumers will quickly realize the benefits of having key credentials including their driver’s license, national health insurance cards, or even their car and apartment keys available on their mobile phone, securely stored at all times. Soon, they may also be able to remotely verify their identity to access and send confidential medical records, open a bank account, or vote using their smartphone.”

When users sign up (eventually), they’ll need to download the Mobile ID application on the Google Play Store. Once the app is running, all that’s required is to tap the phone against the German National ID card (via NFC) and wait for the verification process to complete.

This eID will then be saved in the Galaxy S20, with the information to be used for tasks such as opening bank accounts—and at some point in the future, used across country borders around the EU.