This brief comprises an expert analysis of the European Digital Identity Wallet to inform stakeholders and others on this key initiative. This brief is part of a broader project examining identification technologies and migration conducted by Caribou Digital, University of Virginia, and Queen Mary University of London with support of the Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH. Digital identity proponents regularly claim that innovations like self-sovereign identity are privacy-preserving and empowering for otherwise undocumented or ‘invisible’ populations. Similarly, a new class of emerging applications commonly referred to as ‘digital wallets’ are said to give users more control over their personal data, including in cross-border contexts, and thereby correct historic power imbalances between the vulnerable and authorities.
