Improving the Spid is possible, eliminating it today would be a mistake

It is said that every society has the technology it deserves. This is probably also the case for our country, now accustomed to facing, almost every day, controversies on the affirmation of modernity. Before the postoday it Spid. Let’s face it, two technologies that have made life easier for Italians.

The advantages of Spid (and electronic identity)

The pandemic has accelerated the digitization of a country slow to implement the news. If electronic payments have been around for a long time, too the Spid is old. Born from the idea of ​​the deputy Stefano Quintarelli, it made its debut on March 15, 2016. Since then the relationship of Italians with the public administration has changed radically, on the net there are hundreds of personal stories that list the advantages. “I was able to obtain online, from abroad, certificates that would have required a special trip just to go and stand in line with the number in the District […] Request and print the green pass, consult my profile at the revenue agency…”, reads one of the numerous compliments that Quintarelli is receiving on his Mastodon profile in these hours.

A bottom-up recognition for a top-down innovation. In fact, an increasing number of administrations has begun to adopt the Spid for identification so much that, paraphrasing Marshall McLuhan, we can safely say that “when a new technology penetrates a social environment it cannot cease to permeate it until it has saturated every institution”.

Why do you need to turn off the Spid?

“We must begin to turn off the Spid and promote the electronic identity card as the only digital identity”, said the undersecretary to the Prime Minister two days ago, in charge of technological innovation, Alessio Butti. “The Spid, moreover, has not made inroads among the elderly”. A bolt from the blue.

All we needed was a derby between the two digital identities that coexist in our country. Of course, it is anomalous to keep two digital identities active in our country. “There is no real business for those who have developed Spid and it has not even been thought of seriously favoring a transition of Spid towards e-commerce”, recalls the lawyer Andrea Lisi. From Fondazione Italia Digitale they relaunch that “we are talking about two systems, Spid and Cie, which can be perfectly integrated, as European experiences also show”. A position also espoused by the parent company of Forza Italia in the Chamber, Alexander Cattaneo: “The Spid is a tool that simplifies citizens’ lives, saves time, avoiding queues at counters, and allows you to act in complete safety. It will not be cancelled, but we are looking for a way to resolve some critical issues rather than turn around other part”, relaunches Cattaneo.

Let’s try to understand how.

Cie why yes, Cie why not

Since 1931, Italians have had an identity card which, only in recent years, has become electronic (hence the acronym Cie), or capable of integrating a microprocessor containing primary and secondary data (including fingerprints), for the biometric recognition of the holder.

There are potentially only advantages: a single document for everything. In reality, the current historical situation is difficult: a large part of the world is experiencing difficulties with the procurement of semiconductors (which is leading to the issue of health cards in a new version without the usual microchip) and, if that were not enough, the big cities they require a long time for an appointment at the registry office. In short, the path of the Cie is not free from obstacles. Not forgetting the usual limit of our country, that sort of digital divide generational that excludes those who are not accustomed to technology. Yes, the elderly. For them it is no less difficult to use the electronic identity card since it requires an Rfd reader, on the mobile phone or at home, for authentication. Not easy. Thus the ball returns to the Government, with Butti trying to explain how “both Spid and Cie are ‘eIDAS digital identities’ (ie interoperable throughout the EU), notified to Brussels. Migration will therefore have to be managed at a European level, explaining its meaning and, above all, promptly notifying any technological changes necessary to make the CIE more usable”.

What all this means we still don’t know. We can only suspect that the controversy ends in a similar way to that of the Pos, with a stalemate that will cause the two digital identities to coexist for a long time to come. Maybe improve them both.