Announced last July, the digital identity solution for Post, RTL, Cactus and CFL, called LuxID, was officially launched on Tuesday 5 December. At Next, Post’s innovation space, Marco van Maris, chairman of the LuxID economic interest group (GIE) and head of the digital transformation department at Post Luxembourg, presented the main points of the digital identity solution. He was flanked by representatives of the other member companies of the GIE: Serge Daems, head of the CFL passenger train operations department; Gilles Feipel, marketing director of the supermarket chain Cactus; and , chief technology officer of the media outfit RTL Lëtzebuerg.
By creating a LuxID account--free of charge--users will be able to use this single set of identifiers to connect to their personal space on the websites or applications of companies that have adopted the solution. This has been possible since 7 November for Luxchat, Luxembourg’s new instant messaging service, and starting on 5 December for the P+R CFL application, the MyPost application and RTL Lëtzebuerg.
We are full GDPR compliant.
“Simplicity and security: these were the decisive factors for CFL,” said Daems. “We’re well aware that not all our users are going to switch to LuxID by the end of the year, so we’ll be running advertising campaigns for the P+R application, but that’s just the beginning. The ultimate aim of CFL’s digital strategy is to move to a single MyCFL account, accessible via LuxID.”
During the press conference, van Maris announced that Luxair and the Automobile Club du Luxembourg (ACL) would soon be joining in.
The ambition is for LuxID to be adopted by as many companies and players in Luxembourg and the Greater Region as possible. “The solution is free for companies with no more than 1,000 users, and the aim is to make it accessible to small businesses”, explained van Maris, although “obviously, if we only have these customers, we won’t be profitable. But we’re an GEI [economic interest group], and our aim is not to make a profit.” For the largest customers, with more than 1,000 users, the price of the annual offer remains confidential.
Data security and transparency
For potential customers, LuxID presents itself as an “alternative to authentication solutions offered by well-known players in the social media sector”. A better alternative, according to van Maris, because “data remains in Luxembourg and is not shared beyond the borders of the European Union. We are full GDPR compliant.” In fact, LuxID is hosted by Post in Post’s own data centres, and the ICT firm is entirely responsible for data security. “It also allows companies to contract with a Luxembourg entity”, because when a company wishes to obtain a LuxID, it signs a tripartite contract with both the LuxID organisation and Post.
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From the user’s point of view, the benefits are simplification and transparency. There is no longer any need to remember a multitude of passwords, since all identifications go through LuxID, and above all, the solution allows users to manage their personal data. The LuxID interface allows users to see what information each of the companies where they have a personal account has access to. A demonstration video shows how to use the solution.
The chairman of the group pointed out that LuxID is not a competitor of LuxTrust, which issues an electronic digital identity certificate that can be used, for example, to log on to a bank or pay tax online. “LuxID complements LuxTrust, which is aimed at non-banking sectors such as transport, commerce and the media.” In the future, van Maris said, “we are looking at developments in payment services and electronic signatures.”
Originally published in French by and translated for Delano