Swiss Pass: E-ID through the back door?
From mid-December, new Swiss Pass cards are to replace the old ones. This will entail important changes. With new functions, the Swiss Pass is to become a door opener: As a key for physical doors, as a login for devices and online services, and via a contactless payment function. Consumer Protection criticises that this is a creeping and uncontrolled introduction of an electronic identity (E-ID).
Proudly writes the industry organization for public transport, the Alliance Swiss Passthat the Swiss Pass is one of the most widely distributed maps in Switzerland, with around five million in circulation. Now the plastic card has been given a visual makeover - it shows mountains and is red like a Swiss passport. What's more, the card is enriched with new functions and becomes an opener for doors, a payment and login card for devices and online services. What some people find great about the new Swiss Pass is a thorn in the side of others. The card offers the functions of an E-ID with these extensions, although the people clearly rejected an E-ID operated by companies in the spring of 2021, complains the Consumer protection. One has this is precisely what is feared: private providers tried to occupy the field without having to comply with legal requirements for data and consumer protection.
The FDPIC was not consulted
According to Consumer Protection, it remains unclear for the time being how the privacy of users of the new Swiss Pass will be protected. The data protection declaration for the card has not yet been amended. And an inquiry from the consumer protection agency to the Alliance Swiss Pass has so far gone unanswered. The consumer protection agency's media release also states that the Federal Data Protection Commissioner has not been consulted about the Swiss Pass extensions.
Improvements urgently required
Consumer Protection fears that the protection of data and privacy will be subordinated to the economic interests of the card operators. Therefore, the card should not be put into circulation until the fundamental questions of data protection have been clarified and regulated. In addition, the card users must be given the possibility to exclude or switch off the functions in the user portal in a data-effective manner, says the consumer protection.
