The EU are fucking killing it these days actually. So happy to see it. We had a scare there with Chat Control 2.0 but thankfully it was shot down, besides that we've gotten GDPR, USB-C charging ports, the Digital Markets Act, eIDAS is coming which looks like it could be pretty great, digital drivers licenses, etc. A lot of good stuff.
What did I miss?
The devils deal of convenience over freedom...
I don't think it will fulfill that purpose in practice. The name plus date of birth is a very good tracking identifier and people will be still giving DOB to these companies.
Basically, with the right cryptography, my app can prove my license is valid without revealing any PII. Or in the case of eIDAS, binary questions like "is rekoil 18 years or older?".
If you didn't have the license on you, they'd find you in the DB anyway. Possibly you get a €10 fine. The electronic driving license is just a simplification to me. You don't have to carry anything.
That said, there are things in the category of surveillance that having it in an app do enable. For this reason I would personally like to require that the implementation of these apps is open source, unfortunately I know there was some resistance on that front with regards to eIDAS...
Unlike the driving license, you still need to carry it, either in plastic or as an app in your phone. And it's becoming a bit complicated. It's not a self-contained QR code with an electronic signature. It's a whole system that allows you to share only part of the info to someone (e.g. only age in the pub). It also remembers who asked for that info.
Experience from CZ and very fresh. The electronic ID app for instance is still only a few days old.
Me too, the reason I trust it is that I understand the (really cool) cryptography behind it, and most don't.
But the fact that they even proposed ChatControl and it really had to be fought to be defeated, doesn't instill a lot of confidence in continued progress and vision towards privacy. It feels like the winds could turn just like that.