STORK: The European Electronic Identity Interoperability Platform

The STORK project aims to achieve the interoperability of the European electronic identifiers, which will allow European citizens to establish new e-relations with the Public Administration and private sectors. These new e-relations will be tested by means of pan-European pilots, with new service providers being connected to the platform on a regular basis. As a result, in a medium term, every citizen will be able to establish a company, pay her taxes, or change her address without physical presence, and just by using her national eID independently of wherever the service is provided at. All European countries have already deployed electronic identity solutions. However, the level of assurance respecting each solution differs. Consequently, STORK has established a mapping between the levels of assurance of each country and a commonly agreed set of quality authentication assurance levels (QAA). Thanks to STORK design, service providers can interact with foreign users in a seamlessly and transparent fashion, delegating to STORK the particularities of each eID solution processing, while at the same retain the control respecting the required level of assurance in the user's identity. In any case, the user will always be able to control the data flow, aborting a transaction if desired. Explicit consent of the owner of the data, the user, is always required before sending her data from one entity to another. On the other hand, the platform does not store any personal data, so the user's privacy is guaranteed and enforced by design.