It appears to be the beginning of the end for all those mindnumbing online account registrations in Germany. The country’s corporate giants are promising a brave new future in the form of a single account — one that residents will do their online shopping, get a flight and rent a car, with one accounts without repetitive registrations or passwords.
CNN Money disclosed that Germany’s biggest bank, Deutsche Bank, is teaming up with other big firms to create a new company that will create the service. Users would enter their Identity details just once before they can make all their online purchases across multiple sites.
The partners are Mercedes-Benz, insurer, Allianz, and publisher, Axel Springer. The companies hope other firms will sign up to their vision. They’re calling it a “pan-industry platform for online registration, e-identity and data services.” The program could eventually be expanded to include government services.
For example, drivers could apply for a new license through the system before their old one expires. The partners expect the program will be running in Germany by mid- 2018, and they stressed it will be “secure” and comply with all European Union data protection rules.
Other companies have tried to tackle this issue in the past by making it easier to open online accounts and make purchases — but none have gone as far as this new proposal. The German firms are promising a much broader, secure service.
“The time is ripe for a platform initiative of this kind. It will increase legal certainty for clients and boost the European digital economy’s growth,” Christian Sewing, the deputy CEO of Deutsche Bank, said in a press release. Of course, this planned service could also be a top target for hackers who are keen to get their hands on peoples’ credit card, address and passport details. The new company handling this data will need to implement a range of security systems to protect clients.
