[nivenkos]

Is it though? Not long ago many European countries required some form of digital COVID pass for travel.

Likewise for doing taxes e.g. here in Sweden BankID and Kivra are practically required unless you want to be waiting weeks for letters and queueing at the office.

[ElCheapo]

>Not long ago many European countries required some form of digital COVID pass for travel.

no they didn't? you could just access the platform on your computer and print the QR code the old fashioned way. Hell, you could do that without even having any electronics, you could just go to the library and print it there.

>unless you want to be waiting weeks for letters and queueing at the office.

this reads to me as "if you don't use these digital systems you have to do things like they were before digital systems"

[xorcist]

> "if you don't use these digital systems you have to do things like they were before digital systems"

There's also the expectation from society. Even getting that covid shot was hard without an app, to the point of an extra long queue where nothing worked and in the end a lady told me sternly that I shouldn't be there and to get with the times and that I am young enough to be able to use a smartphone. As if that was the problem ...

That was just covid. Doing (non-trivial) taxes on paper involves some calculation, and I am liable if I get it wrong, whereas I know the web page does all calculations the right way.

Then there's school reports, public transportation, public libraries, calling in sick to work, taking out pension, the list is long and every single step of it is an inconvenience constantly reminding me to just stick with the non-free, mainstream, controlled by a private company, way.

[3np]

> this reads to me as "if you don't use these digital systems you have to do things like they were before digital systems"

You missed the part where they might actually prefer to use digital systems but would only be able to so by delegating their identity to a trusted and locked down iOS or Android+SafetyNet device. Other comments seem to indicate that this is not a strict requirement for filing your taxes digitally where GP is at, but that's beside the point of your comment.

[GekkePrutser]

True, I printed mine on credit card format and laminated it, it was in my card wallet. Much faster than opening an app every time and zero tracking, at least on my side.

Glad we're rid of that though.

[type0]

I am quite confident that this wouldn't be allowed if there wasn't so many seniors without smartphones though

[Legogris]

Last time I tried (granted, years ago), BankID was still relatively straight-forward to set up and use on a PC. Not all sites support the flow, though.

Authorities should also still accept alternatives like Freja (if there's anything they won't close the door on it's making it straightforward to pay your taxes, I guess).

I'm far from happy wit the situation and would prefer that authorities take an open standards-approach compatible with FLOSS. But it's also not as terrible as it may seem at first.

[xorcist]

But is it straight-forward to set up on any PC, or just those locked down with proprietary single vendor controlled software?

In the latter case, it is not in any way better than a proprietary phone. In practice probably worse, since it is easier and cheaper to keep an extra phone around.

[Legogris]

Was running it fine on Linux IIRC (maybe look it up if you're actually interested?), but again, long time ago so things may have changed.

EDIT: Things seem to have deteriorated quite a bit and no major improvement in sight. Maybe not a surprise.

https://www.monperrus.net/martin/bankid-linux

https://www.sweclockers.com/forum/trad/1592956-bankid-pa-lin...

[dailykoder]

You could've gotten the QR-Code on a piece of paper, without a phone (which still is ridiculous that they forced people to use some random QR-Code and ignored the internationally accepted vaccination card of the WHO)