Eliminate the Spid and replace it with the Electronic Identity Card (Cie)? This is the dilemma of the Meloni government. The public digital identity system, the access key to the Public Administration's online services, could have its months numbered. At the party for the tenth anniversary of Fratelli d'Italia, the undersecretary to the Prime Minister with responsibility for technological innovation, Alessio Butti, it was clear: “We have to start turning off the Spid and promoting the electronic identity card”. The target? create aunique digital identitynational and state-run.
So much effort for nothing. There are over 33 million Italians who have Spid - against the 32 million who have the Cie - and who use it to interact with the PA and also with a series of private entities. Unless we find a way to make the transition that promises to be complex as "painless" as possible, we risk taking a big step backwards.
Is eliminating the Spid a good idea?
THEabolition of Spid would risk interrupting the path to a flood digitization of services to the citizen which was triggered, and which accelerated during the Covid pandemic. But it is also one of the goals of the Pnrr (last November the levels set for 2024 were reached). So why take a step back? Risking triggering a new debate with the EU Commission? The intention is to ensure that digital identity is no longer entrusted to private managers, but only to public companies. But how to cancel the Spid and replace it with the Cie?
The government's plan, explained by the undersecretary in charge of Innovation Alessio Butti in a letter to Corriere della Sera, is to bring Spid into the Cie, allowing the release "remotely in 24 hours at no cost” (now it costs from 16,79 euros and the times required for the request to the Municipalities and for the release by the Ministry of the Interior are variable and often long) and then studying a migration through a “negotiated transition” which also involves private identity managers digital and is in line with European rules and standards. It has not yet been explained how all this would be concretely possible, but above all, how to do it without displacing the Italians again.
Differences between Spid and Cie: which is better?
Spid and Cie are both digital identities usable for access to both public and private digital services. But the two systems are not superimposable. The Spid services are provided by nine operators called "identity providers" (Aruba, Intesa, InfoCert, Lepida, Namirial, Poste Italiane, Sielte, SpidItalia, TeamSystem and Tim) and guarantee a first and second level security threshold, while the Cie, issued by the Ministry of the Interior and produced by the State Printing Office and Mint, is issued in attendance and has three levels of security: requires Pin and Puk, as well as a special reader to be connected to the devices (smart card reader). However, the third level is the one required by the security standards set by Europe for the European digital identity which should see the light from 2025. A kind of app on which each of us will be able to upload his documents.
Therefore, the Cie does not have the possibility of being used as a level 1 and 2 identity. Instead, with the Spid, a few clicks are enough both from a PC and a smartphone, without the need for a connected physical element. (for example, if you shop online, you don't have to give your ID).
To date, therefore, the Cie suffers from three limitations: release times, cost e chip (since there aren't even any for cars or cars health cards). And if they are not "resolved" in the possible migration, the abolition of the Spid risks turning into another flop.
