How does ID matching work?

The context

Estonian Kaisa has previously lived and worked in Finland. At the time, she was registered in the Finnish population register and assigned a Finnish national identity number. After moving back to Estonia, Kaisa is frequently using the Estonian eID solution Mobile-ID to identify online for Estonian digital services, but she does not have any eID method available for Finnish digital services.

Kaisa needs to access taxation services in Finland, but with the current solutions, she is not able to without a Finnish national eID.

With NOBID ID matching, Kaisa will be able to access Finnish digital services through the eIDAS network, using her Estonian eID or a national wallet and PID.

Home country = from where the eID is issued (in this case Estonia)

Host country = country of the digital service (in this case Finland)

The ID matching process

Below, you'll find how the process can be performed both using the existing eIDAS 1.0 network, and by using a national wallet with a PID.

1

International login and home country

The user initiates the login process at the Tax service webpage. While the ID matching service could be a separate process, we consider it as a natural integrated part of the login process. This could be done through the country’s national eID hub, suomi.fi e-Identification, which is often used for public services. The eID hub should provide a login option for international users.

First, the user selects international login in the eID hub, then the country where their eID is issued, Estonia.

Connecting to the Estonian eIDAS node
2

Present home country eID

The user is directed to the Estonian eID hub, where they can choose between different eID methods, ID card or Mobile-ID. The user selects their preferred eID, Mobile-ID and performs the given authentication flow.

The authentication flow should include a step where the user is able to consent to their ID attributes (National identity number, name, date of birth, etc.) is shared with both the Finnish eIDAS node and the ID matching service.

ID attributes are shared with the ID matching service
3

Search for a match

The ID matching service then performs a search towards the Finnish population register, looking for identities with matching attributes. If a sufficient match is found, the Finnish national identity number is also provided and passed to the Tax service.

Home country ID
Host country Population Register Record
National identity number
19480403-2094
Foreign identity number
19480403-2094
First name
Kaisa
First name
Kaisa
Last name
Sepp
Last name
Sepp
Date of birth
1948-04-03
Date of birth
1948-04-03
National identity number
19480403-2094
First name
Kaisa
Last name
Sepp
Date of birth
1948-04-03
Host country Population Register Record
Foreign identity number
19480403-2094
First name
Kaisa
Last name
Sepp
Date of birth
1948-04-03

Create identity binding (possible step)

After finding an identity match, the host country may choose to create an identity binding. This means that the connection between the home and host country IDs is saved. The next time the user logs into a digital service using the same eID hub, the identity binding is already there as proof of the ID match.

Finnish identity is shared with digital service
4

User can access digital service

Once the Tax service provider has received the user's Finnish identity (national identity number), the user is logged in and can access the service.

Want to test ID matching?

Try our ID matching service as a Swedish user matching with the Norwegian population register. This will give you insight into how the identity data is used in various matching scenarios, for both eIDAS 1.0 and eIDAS 2.0.

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