Hacker News Reader

Comment by birdsongs | Hacker News Reader

But I can't use my Norwegian BankID unless I have an apple store or play store account. This is required for every aspect of society. Heathcare, banking, taxes, driving, using my debit card online.

They removed SMS 2FA options recently, the only non-tech monopoly method is a 2fa codebrick that's getting harder and harder to acquire (there are new ridiculous facial ID and passport scanning requirements, run by a private corporation, in order to get one).

It's garbage and getting worse. And it seems no one cares our entire lives exist at the whim of two US tech monoliths.

View on HN

We need all countries and the EU govs to mandate companies to provide the same vital access via a Web page that works on the 4 major browsers (not an issue anymore) as via the app. All my banks have it; I need an otp device but thats fine; it works well. I wish EU would mandate that plus an EU made hardware device on which all seeds can be stored and otps generated. That can be the size of an USB stick you can put on your keyring. Add NFC/qr so you don't have to type the otp and there we go.

Most places are going the other way. The UK uses ID verification for company directors that gave me an alternative between driving half an hour each way (plus parking and queueing) or using a mobile app. There is a web version but apparently they do not have the data to let me use it. The EU is pushing an age verification app that will only work on Apple or Google phones.

There is a huge push towards cashless payments that has the same effect, especially as people increasingly use mobile payments.

Yep, it's pretty bad.

That's on your bank and not necessarily because of Apple/Google duopoly. I think it is crazy to put the whole banking system on foreign, private company though

It's not on their bank so much as the entire banking system in Norway and the rest of society tagging along for the ride.

BankID is used for login with every single Norwegian bank and government institution. There are alternatives, but they're invonvenient and sometimes bespoke per service.

The App Store account doesn’t need to be the same as the Apple iCloud account. You can create an account without a credit card associated to it.

That's much worse than I expected. Is it a hard play store requirement or can you install the apk? Are there really no other workarounds?

It truly is. We are a completely digital society and everything is authenticated with BankID. The name is a misnomer, it's not just banking but every single government service (including healthcare).

I might be wrong but as far as I'm aware there's no legitimate APK downloads. And even if you get a hold of it, they use google services to attest the phone is secure, so there's no running it on a google-less OS.

The workaround used to be SMS codes, scratch off cards, and a physical 2FA codebrick. They cancelled SMS and the card, and currently you can't acquire a codebrick until they figure out some new bullshit about ID verification. Even the app is warning us it will quit functioning if we don't submit a passport and biometric face scan to some private company: https://bankid.no/en/help/confirm-identity

It's fucking dire.

What Norway has sounds pretty crazy to me. If I am reading this correctly, Trump can disable the entire Norwegian healthcare system by calling Apple and Google and having them block BankID.

Yes, he can. Along with taxes, car registrations, banking, money transfers, rent payments, etc.

I really hope we figure something out.

I wish he would. Then the authorities would have to fix the problem.

Trump can close down a lot of the British NHS by telling AWS to stop supplying it. Everyone apart from a few countries (China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, etc.) is dependent on the US.

Yes but that’s a blunt instrument, which would risk reaction. However putting an individual on a sanctions list is routine and easy.

And a president could always just call up the CEOs and ask for their least favourite Norwegian to be cancelled without any paperwork.

As happened to ICC judges and prosecutors.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com