Galactic praise for the German electronic Identity Card (“Personalausweis”)

In order to discuss the draft of a “Law for the Promotion of Electronic Identification” (BT-Drs. 18/11279) on Monday, April 24, 2017, an apparently widely perceived¹ hearing of the Committee for Internal affairs of the German parliament (“Bundestag”) took place. Everybody who was not able to be in Berlin on this memorable day, can see the recording of the expert hearing in the media library of the Bundestag. For those who do not wish to view the entire meeting, we have provided the most interesting section here:

Dr. Constanze Kurz, the spokeswoman of the Chaos Computer Club explains the following about the German electronic ID card:

“The basic concept of its technical nature is complex and certainly difficult to understand for the ordinary citizen who now gets this activated chip, but of course very well designed and a good solution.”

We always knew it! There is nothing more to say. It is an open question whether the eID function of the ID card still needs legal support after this most likely largest possible galactic² praise.

¹ As explained in the FAQ, the Chaos Computer Club „is a galactic community of creatures, regardless of age, gender and descent, as well as social status“.

² See e.g. ZEIT, Focus, NETZPOLITIK, Berliner Zeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau, Heise, Kommune21, eGovernment-Computing, Computer Base