EU in Practice: The European Digital Identity Wallet

REDefine // Civic Intelligence Podcast · Oct 8, 2026 · 2m · transcript

Someone asks whether you are over 18. You hand over an identity card.

They now know much more than whether you are over 18.

Your full name is there. Your exact date of birth. Your photograph. Your nationality. A document number. Depending on what you handed over, perhaps several other pieces of information that have nothing whatsoever to do with the question.

We are so used to this arrangement that it barely registers as odd. Physical identity documents come as bundles, and the bundle is what we show. You cannot peel your age off a passport, hand over that one fact and keep the rest in your…