Research project AP/38 (Research action AP)
Background
Automation is unthinkable without unique identifiers. Business and industry use unique personnel numbers and customer codes, the university uses unique student numbers, banks have unique bank account numbers, governments cannot do without unique codes for the citizens they serve. By "unique" we mean that each person is identifiable in a unique way. In itself this approach poses no problems. There is not much to be said until we have the situation in which several organisations use the same unique identifier. In our country the trend is to use the National Registration Number as a unique identifier in all government applications, and sometimes beyond, irrespective of context.
Purpose
In this study not only do we look at a number of theoretical considerations on the advantages and disadvantages of this method, but we analyse in practice a small number of complex e-government processes in which a number of authorities make use of the National Registration Number. These processes are investigated in combination with the standard legal protection mechanisms (authorisations).
In respect of these processes we look at the efficiency gains achieved by using the National Registration Number across a range of contexts. What loss of efficiency is experienced if alternative methods are used? In respect of these alternative methods we compare how similar government processes are carried out in a small number of countries in which the government uses the same, unique identifier in a variety of contexts (Austria, Germany).
We will also look at which interim solutions present themselves. In all likelihood, sector-related identification numbers, such as those suggested by the Privacy Committee in the Phoenix Recommendations (13/2006), will not be the only conceivable train of thought. Would alternative solutions offer real gains in the area of data privacy compared with the current practice in our country? And would they offer sufficient guarantee of security from a technical viewpoint?
This section of the study will provide a legally and technically well-founded and balanced recommendation as to how, based on existing practices in this country, unique identifiers can be used in the state sector.
ID-FIX IDentification and Federal Inter-administration eXchange : eindrapport
Brussel : Federaal Wetenschapbeleid, 2011 (SP2254)
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