IAS (Identification, etc) and e-Europe GIF

[Peter Tomlinson]

The e-Europe Smart Cards project has generated a 4 part document called the
Global Interoperability Framework for Identification, Authentication and
Digital Signature. Effectively, this is a high level specification for
public sector issued smart cards with your personal digital certificate on
it. Did I say ID card? No, I didn't.

I'm studying this as part of a document review job, and in part 3 section
4.1.2 (on p.15) have found:

"Identification is a public function: Any off card entity is entitled
without restriction to call onto the identification function and obtain the
identification data from the smart card."

It seems to me that, if I as a UK citizen (sic) am carrying this card,
nobody except me is 'entitled' to obtain the identification data from card.
I might grant permission for it to be read out... I might go to the Tower
under some circumstances if I didn't reveal my identity... I wonder in how
many European countries my identity is in fact a public piece of
information? (Maybe the good side of being a subject of the Crown is that I
can be anonymous when I want to be.)

To find these documents, go to http://eeurope-smartcards.org/ and, in the
'Latest News' column you will find a link to 'Work in Process'. This link
brings you a Word doc with links to GIF parts 1 to 3 (not an ideal way to
find them, I know). The Word doc also links you to an ftp site
ftp://ftp.cenorm.be/public/eEurope-scc/5Sp-CD/ where the documents are
hopefully easy to download (but for Part 2 make sure you get V1.05).

If desired, I will mount these documents on www.iosis.org.

Peter