No goodbye to Spid, at least in the immediate term. Instead, the Government will launch an “assessment agreed with all stakeholders”, institutional and otherwise, on the rationalization of digital identities, with the aim of verifying the long-term feasibility of a single digital identity, national and managed by the State. The presidency of the Council is trying to clarify (and curb) the direction of march after the declarations at the tenth anniversary of Fdi by the undersecretary in charge of Innovation, Alessio Butti, on the desire to “turn off” the Spid. The idea, dear to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party, is to create a path – which is specified as “long and to be shared” – in four stages, of “negotiated transition” to make the electronic identity card the only tool for accessing public administration online services.
Disagreement of the oppositions and coldness in the majority
But Butti’s statements were greeted with hostility by the opposition (“Enough of the choices against the citizens, long live modernity”, commented Matteo Renzi and Marianna Madia) and with coldness also by a part of the majority. The group leader of Fi in the Chamber, Alessandro Cattaneo, wanted to reassure: «The Spid simplifies the life of citizens. It will not be cancelled, but we are looking for ways to resolve some issues. There are categories, such as the elderly, who find it difficult to use it». Precisely to allow citizens to delegate family members more easily, INPS offers the “Spid Delegation” service.
The governor of Liguria, Giovanni Toti, has distanced himself from Butti: «Spid can be simplified, but abolishing it seems to me a step backwards». “Turning it off would be a mistake,” warned the Digital Identity Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic.
The history of Spid
Spid, born in 2013 and implemented by Agid (Agency for Digital Italy) until its debut in 2016, has been in Fdi’s sights for years. In February 2020, as a deputy, Butti had signed an agenda at the Milleproroghe which committed the Government to work for a “State Spid”, with the Interior Ministry as identity provider unique and with the provision of digital identity no longer entrusted to private operators, but only to public companies such as the Post Office. The request was addressed to the then Minister of Innovation of Conte 2, Paola Pisano. Already in those days you tried to think about a convergence with the Cie, but nothing came of it. Then came the pandemic, the rain of bonuses that can be requested online and the push in the Draghi-Colao era to increase digital identities, included in the Pnrr as a goal. With excellent results, because the 2024 targets have already been exceeded: today there are 33.32 million Italians with Spid (+5.87 million since the end of 2021), 12,591 participating bodies (+33.7% since the beginning of 2022) and 950.6 million accesses to services (+66% since January). However, it was logical to expect that Fdi would not abandon the flag of the “national” digital identity, waved against the main feature of Spid: the presence of a list of ten accredited managers (Tim, Poste Italiane, TeamSystem, Intesa, InfoCert, SpidItalia, Lepida, Namirial, Aruba and Sielte) which provide identities and manage user authentication.
The differences with the electronic ID card
There are many sites that allow access to services via both Spid and Cie. The difference is that the electronic identity card, owned by 31 million Italians, is a non-dematerialized identity document, produced by the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca of the State and issued by the Ministry of the Interior, equipped with a microchip where the personal and biometric data of the holder are stored and the information that allows online identification. The data contained in the Cie, except for the fingerprints, can be read with a PC to which a smartcard reader is connected or with a smartphone equipped with an NFC interface (near field communication). This mechanism makes the use of the Cie more complex but its level of security is higher, an element that could prove to be decisive in the future in view of the open construction site in Europe, where a digital identity wallet in which to enter all the credentials of EU citizens. This is also why Butti spoke of a migration from Spid to Cie to be managed at a European level. And he promised as a first step the simplification of the CIE to allow its remote release, at no cost (today it costs 16.79 euros) and in 24 hours. That’s a goal no one would argue with. Starting with the citizens.