Setting the Scene: The future of Digital Travel Credentials

So, hi everybody. Happy to be back here. It's actually not 10 minutes, it's a session of an hour whereby I will quickly set the scene and we have a presentation afterwards from the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security about a pilot they did with the digital travel credential. And afterwards, we have a great panel with some of the brightest minds in the industry on the topic, and there's quite a lot happening. I always love attending EIC every year and this year, again, it's inspiring.

I learn a lot and I see, I listen that roaming wallets, how do we use our wallets all over the world is one of the biggest topics around right now. But if we physically travel the world, we will still need to use our passport so that we have to comply with that rule or regulation. You cannot travel the world without it. And often there are different demands in law regulation. If you travel a region or if you travel a, a national country, for instance, in the US you can travel domestically on your driver's license and there's a mobile driver's license that's really taking ground.

We saw Lofi Yoan from the A MA double A MV. There's a lot happening there. This is fantastic.

But in, in the eu, you need an eu, EU identity card to travel. You cannot travel on a driver's license. You can maybe identify yourself at some instances, but you cannot travel on a driver with the driver's license. Then you have the regional aspect, often with like in whether it's West Africa, Kowa, or whether it's here, the, the community in the Caribbean, but also the EU as a n probably it's on your passport and it means that you can often means you can freely travel and live in that area.

So it is important that we, if we talk about roaming wallets, we need to have that global demand, that global standard, which is our passport. And often regionally, like I said something, another identity card. But let's focus on the passport here. We need that passport to be in our wallet and we need to be able to use it digitally. Why you think is that obvious role here? Because it's all about digitization, everything. But for travel, there are two very important aspects. I summed up a few here, but it basically boils down to two aspects and they balance each other out.

And if you digitize, that's my experience. If you digitize travel credentials and you use them, they become equally heavy and they equally serve their purpose.

One is, first and foremost, security, border security, national security, aviation security, airport security. The identity management at a very high level of security is extremely important to counter cross border, organized crime, terrorism, human smuggling. This is an important aspect of it. This is also why at un at multilateral level, national level, this is always a priority. And the other one is to make travel easier, more fun to make processes go smoothly, efficiently, create a better passenger experience. And they both turn out equally well.

If you digitize two main developments, I would like to touch on the EDI wallet. I don't think I need to explain here what it is. And the other one is the IKO, the International Civil Aviation Organization, which is a UN body. They have published the first standards for the digital travel credential, which is a virtual component of your passport, usually on a physical device. And you still need to have your physical document, the booklet with you. That is type one. The specifications have been out for a while, since 2020, fall of 2020. So it's been around, it's, it's not new.

We will hear later VIN from the Lingus presentation on the Dutch government and how they piloted this and, and curious to hear how that went. There are some issues or issues. There were opportunities and some challenges with the DTC.

It, it can be authenticated by state control PKD, which is important because otherwise you don't get the high level of assurance to cross a border to get that trust. And it is a global standard, but it is specifically designed for the use, use case of border control for border authorities to be received because selective disclosure is only possible per data group on it. So it doesn't comply in most cases. In most cases with private parties with data minimization and data privacy standards. So there is a bit of an issue there, which is we haven't solved yet, but we will hear later.

There are many ideas about this. And then the other thing is that in, in the, in the law, even though this is a treaty level, very often in the law it's not yet translated. So countries will be able to do something with the DTC. But in the law it says you have to be present, you have to present your document to a border control authority.

Okay, that doesn't, that doesn't really match with the DTC. But What will the EUDI wallet bring to this table? I copied this from the evangelization deck from the commission and it says, what can the EUDI wallet do for you and travel store your visas, passports, other travel documents in your wallet, early check-in to flights and hotels. This is really ambition and this is music to my ears because this is exactly what we need to have, but we are not there yet. We will learn later, like I said with the DTC and private parties, there are some issues.

And as you know, you all, most of you traveled here, used your passport to cross a border, used your passport then with a, a private party, the airline to check into a flight and then to check into your hotel. But those, they cannot get all the information from your passport. They don't need all that information and they don't want it because then they're not complying with privacy rules or regulation. So how will this work out in the wallet?

I have many more questions and I'm actually very excited for what the future will bring because I know we will work towards more legal sta more technical standards, but especially legal standards because about crossing a border, it's about a law, a national law, a regional law, a treaty that you have to comply to. I am curious when we will have the next standards for DTC two and three coming. How will the DTC fit in a wallet? That's what I hope the EWCD eeu Digital Identity Wallet Consortium will pilot with the DTC in the wallet. How do we travel?

But how do we solve that selective disclosure? We will hear later, I IATA is, has done a POC where they created a passport in e passport credential incorporating the DTC. Let's see. And if we look at the world Europe is doing is working on the ei, the EU digital wallet credential, eu. EU digital wallet. The pit is the anchor. The government provides you the wallet with the pit. Will it be trusted outside of the eu? Why cannot I check into a hotel outside of the EU in the future with my pit? Because it'll be trusted.

I hope for a start that I can use it when I check into a hotel in Spain and not have to copy, have to have my passport copied and just check in with my pit. So will we get relying parties outside of the eu?

Any many, many questions but some hope for developments? I saw that the EU had a memorandum of corporations signed with Japan and digital identity is one of them. So very curiously Following what will happen there and we will hopefully answer questions or get your thoughts going on this in the next few 40 minutes when we have no 40 minutes, no 50 minutes when we have Linga, who will, I hope is ready here he is with the Dutch government, a Ministry of Justice and Security, and they have done a very important pilot on the I-K-O-D-T-C and here he is. So handing over the clicker. There you go.

Thank you very much. Very much Annette.