Goodbye NemID: Danish digital ID system shuts down for good
Denmark's NemID digital ID system will stop working at midnight on Tuesday after more than 13 years, completing the migration to the new, more secure, MitID system.
According the the Agency for Digital Government, 98 percent of Danes over the age of 15 have already shifted over to the MidID system, with only 31,149 citizens using NemID within the past six months, and only 11,493 in the month up to 15 October.
Adam Lebech, deputy director of the Agency for Digital Government, told Ritzau that the remaining NemID users were primarily those over 80 years old, as well as a few people who had recently turned 15.
"For the elderly, it may be that they have felt safe using NemID and are therefore waiting as long as possible to switch," he told the Ritzau newswire. "With young people, it's more about some having to get used to adult life, where you have to interact with the public sector."
NemID has been running a skeleton service since June 30th, with no support offered to users and no new IDs offered. Since October 2022, it has not been possible to use NemID to access online bank accounts, meaning most adults already switched to MidID at least a year ago.
To create a MitID login, you need to download the app to your smartphone and use your passport, although not all foreign passports work, so if you have the wrong passport or do not have a smartphone, you may need to visit your local Borgerservice office.
Lebech said his agency had been cooperating with charities working with the elderly, homeless, and other socially vulnerable people to reach the last 2 percent.
"We also have a really good collaboration with, among others, Ældre Sagen and with various networks that help socially vulnerable people such as the homeless and people who have difficulty with the Danish language," he told Ritzau.
Some services offered under NemID, such as email encryption and digital signing, are not being offered in the new MitID system.
According to the NemID website, users should export all their encrypted emails as PDFs before the shutdown at midnight as once the system ceases to operate it will no longer be possible to access them.
Both NemID and MitID were developed by the Danish payments company Nets.
MitID is owned by a partnership between Finans Danmark, which represents banks in Denmark, and by the Danish Agency for Digital Government, which represents the national, regional and municipal governments.
Comments
See Also
According the the Agency for Digital Government, 98 percent of Danes over the age of 15 have already shifted over to the MidID system, with only 31,149 citizens using NemID within the past six months, and only 11,493 in the month up to 15 October.
Adam Lebech, deputy director of the Agency for Digital Government, told Ritzau that the remaining NemID users were primarily those over 80 years old, as well as a few people who had recently turned 15.
"For the elderly, it may be that they have felt safe using NemID and are therefore waiting as long as possible to switch," he told the Ritzau newswire. "With young people, it's more about some having to get used to adult life, where you have to interact with the public sector."
NemID has been running a skeleton service since June 30th, with no support offered to users and no new IDs offered. Since October 2022, it has not been possible to use NemID to access online bank accounts, meaning most adults already switched to MidID at least a year ago.
To create a MitID login, you need to download the app to your smartphone and use your passport, although not all foreign passports work, so if you have the wrong passport or do not have a smartphone, you may need to visit your local Borgerservice office.
Lebech said his agency had been cooperating with charities working with the elderly, homeless, and other socially vulnerable people to reach the last 2 percent.
"We also have a really good collaboration with, among others, Ældre Sagen and with various networks that help socially vulnerable people such as the homeless and people who have difficulty with the Danish language," he told Ritzau.
Some services offered under NemID, such as email encryption and digital signing, are not being offered in the new MitID system.
According to the NemID website, users should export all their encrypted emails as PDFs before the shutdown at midnight as once the system ceases to operate it will no longer be possible to access them.
Both NemID and MitID were developed by the Danish payments company Nets.
MitID is owned by a partnership between Finans Danmark, which represents banks in Denmark, and by the Danish Agency for Digital Government, which represents the national, regional and municipal governments.
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.