German parliament approves 'd-you' digital wallet for ID cards on phones
Germans are set to be able to identify themselves via a smartphone app from Jan. 2, 2027, first online and later in daily life. Opposition parties raised data concerns.
Symbolic image · Photo: Daniel Schwen / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Germany's Bundestag on Thursday approved the legal basis for a state-run digital wallet. The "d-you" app will store the national identity card, letting citizens identify themselves more easily online to authorities and businesses. In the longer term, the phone is meant to replace the plastic card in everyday life, with documents such as driving licences to be added step by step. The European Union requires every member state to offer such an app. The upper house, the Bundesrat, still has to approve the law.
Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger, a Christian Democrat, has said the app will launch on Jan. 2, 2027. The governing conservatives and Social Democrats voted in favor, while the far-right AfD, the Greens and the Left Party voted against. CDU lawmaker Markus Reichel said people should use it "not through compulsion, but through real added value." The Greens said the law would allow automatic exchange of biometric data between passport authorities, and a Left Party lawmaker warned of a "cookie banner 2.0 situation."
The law also eases some rules: people who were 70 or older when they applied for their last ID card may keep using it indefinitely, and passport holders will no longer need to visit an office to update their address after moving.