EU Exploring Idea of Using Government ID Cards As Mandatory Online Logins (softpedia.com)

An anonymous reader writes from a report via Softpedia: Fears that fake online reviews might ruin the consumer market and damage legitimate businesses are making the European Commission consider the idea of forcing all EU citizens to log into online accounts using their government-issued ID cards. Details about these plans can be found in a proposal named "Online Platforms and the Digital Single Market Opportunities and Challenges," announced on May 25, 2016. According to this document, "online platforms should accept credentials issued or recognized by national public authorities, such as electronic or mobile IDs, national identity cards, or bank cards." The reasoning, according to the EU, is that "online ratings and reviews of goods and services are helpful and empowering to consumers, but they need to be trustworthy and free from any bias or manipulation. A prominent example is fake reviews."

Comments

Death to anonyminity

[Anonymous Coward]

While I think that, since we're all carrying chip & pin cards, that they should be useable as login credentials, they should not, in any way, be mandatory.

Re:Death to anonyminity

[ShanghaiBill]

While I think that, since we're all carrying chip & pin cards, that they should be useable as login credentials,

I don't see how that solves anything. My daughter makes money writing fake reviews, and she uses her real name. At most, an identity check will prevent someone from posting more than one review about the same product, but with millions of products and millions of reviewers, that is not much of a limitation.

Re: Death to anonyminity

[bigpat]

Europe, or rather, the EU, in its current form, is not really much more than a concentration of bribes. Instead of having to bribe a lot of small nations, you have an easy central hub where to insert your bribes.

Aside of that, there is little benefit.

Of course, regulations that enable and protect local small businesses and exclude competition raise costs for consumers and are probably even more corrupting at the local level... so there is that.

To my perspective, good regulations are the ones that level the playing field between local businesses and large businesses with simple rules everyone can follow and don't rely as much on the preemptive discretion of regulators to enable business with licenses and permits (which is where a good portion of corruption is generated). Punishing bad actors, ones that break simple rules on health and safety, should be the focus of regulation.

Bad regulations are ones that go too far in either direction and create a labyrinth of regulation for the purpose of regulatory capture and protectionism of various sorts. Prior certifications, licenses and permits are at the heart of public corruption and regulatory capture and should be avoided for all but a last resort.

Put simply laws that put too much discretion in the hands of regulators undermine the rule of law.

Better to set simple regulations that are easy to follow and enforce, focus on public health, safety and market fairness.

Re:Brexit

[johannesg]

Someone somewhere in the path between slashdot and the EU commission must have some reading comprehension problems. Or maybe it's misrepresented on purpose.

Or maybe we have seen how the worst government excesses are always presented like this, and are naturally mistrusting about anything that whiffs of destroying a vital part of our freedom.

"We decide on something, leave it lying around, and wait and see what happens. If no one kicks up a fuss, because most people don't understand what has been decided, we continue step by step until there is no turning back." (Juncker)

"If it's a Yes, we will say 'on we go', and if it's a No we will say 'we continue’,” (Juncker)

“Of course there will be transfers of sovereignty. But would I be intelligent to draw the attention of public opinion to this fact?,” (Juncker)

"I'm ready to be insulted as being insufficiently democratic, but I want to be serious ... I am for secret, dark debates" (Juncker)

"When it becomes serious, you have to lie." (Juncker)

Are you trying to say you trust this guy?

Re:Brexit

[Anonymous Coward]

You're making a vast array of flawed assumptions:

- that trade deals are necessary to trade: they are not, as the record US-EU trade levels prove, without trade deals being currently enforced between the two (they are negotiating one right now, and hopefully the negotiation will fail)

- that trade deals are "good": they are not, tell it to those who lost their jobs because of companies moving production where labor costs are low

- that France and Germany are pro-EU, and their current governments are somehow eternal (have you seen the polls for the next french election?)

In general, you're forgetting the fact that anti-EU parties are skyrocketing everywhere, and EU's popularity is as low as a sewer:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/bus...

Your idea of an EU "multicultural" cesspool-superstate is ending where it belongs: to the Landfill of History

Re:Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

[dinfinity]

The curvature of bananas was part of a long list of quality demands in which I can imagine it to have been thought innocuous at the time:
"The main provisions of the regulation were that bananas sold as unripened, green bananas should be green and unripened, firm and intact, fit for human consumption, not "affected by rotting", clean, free of pests and damage from pests, free from deformation or abnormal curvature, free from bruising, free of any foreign smell or taste."

The demands concerning size and shape are set to be dropped:
"On 29 July 2008, the European Commission held a preliminary vote concerning the repeal of certain regulations related to the quality of specific fruit and vegetables that included provisions related to size and shape."

( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... )

I never said the EU was perfect. I did say this:
"almost all of the crazy or stupid stuff dies in the process"
and this:
"in general it has the most rational and thought-through policies on this planet"

Note by the way that (spoilt) consumers have long tended to disregard 'ugly' vegetables and fruit; they'd rather buy something else that does meet their aesthetic expectations. In response, retailers in the developed countries have been imposing restrictions on the appearance of the stuff they buy, because they'd rather not be the ones throwing the ugly stuff away at the end of the day. I could see how this would lead the EC to justify an EU-wide standard for banana-quality as a way to prevent waste early on in the process, pushing the 'ugly' food to countries with less spoilt customers, and to prevent member states from making life harder for banana producers by each having their own banana standard. Let me emphasize that I don't believe this specific bit of EU-wide standardization is one of the high points of EU legislation, but if this is the worst bit of legislation it has produced then that is actually proof that legislation in the EU in general is in pretty good fucking shape.

A dichotomy of comprehension

[Taco Cowboy]

I do read the comments here and have realize a dichotomy of responses to the same article

Those from the West side of the Pond (USA) tend to see this as a creeping danger, a slippery slope that will end up gobbling up the rights of the individuals

Those from the Right side of the Pond (Europe), on the other hand, tend to espouse your point of view --- that the entire thing is nothing but an 'encouragement', a mere 'suggestion', with 'check and balances', and so on, and so forth

A guy even lament that we from the West side of the Pond are kinda 'over-reacting' to a totally harmless proposal

All I can see from this dichotomy is the difference in the way we were brought up

I am an America but I am a naturalized American. I came from China

In America I find that most of my fellow Americans (those who were born inside the USA) share with me a very strong suspicion against the government

But on the other side of the pond, you Europeans seem to put all your trust on the government --- for you, TPTB is nothing to fear, for TPTB is good, and will work for the good for all

I am not going to tell you that we Americans are right and you are wrong, however, I do need to remind you guys, the Europeans one thing ---

If you put too much trust on someone one day that same someone might betray you and you will be hurt, and hurt bad

Lest you forget, may I bring up the Snowden files?

Of all the info Edward Snowden has given us, one thing stand out --- that power corrupts

Governments, no matter if it is from US or UK or France of Germany, were all involved in the invasion of privacy, in clear violation of the rules

We from the West side of the Pond tend to not trust our government so much because we still retain that important quality you Europeans have long lost --- that sense of ever vigilance

You guys trust your government too much and one day you guys will grow to regret it