Electronic Identification as an Enabling or Obstructive force : The general public’s use and reflections on the Swedish e-ID

Sammanfattning: This thesis is an exploration of the general public's use and reflections on electronic identification (e-ID) tokens, in Sweden. Based on the researcher’s own experiences, the aim was to understand how the current e-ID scheme was enabling or obstructing the interaction with public agencies, etcetera. The thesis has a qualitative research design and is situated within the interpretivist paradigm. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews and the analysis of three documents, published by three different public agencies in Sweden. The data was analyzed through the vehicle of thematic analysis, which engendered four themes. These were 1. e-ID definitions, 2. the personal identity number as enabler and obstruction, 3. banks as the major e-ID issuer in Sweden and 4. security, skepticism and trust. The findings indicated that the e-ID was associated with convenience and security risks, which were brought up by the interviewees as well as the analyzed public reports. Furthermore, one of the public reports argued that the e-ID should be separated from the notion of having authority, through re- baptizing the Swedish term for e-ID, in Swedish 'e-legitimation' to electronic identity document ('elektronisk identitetshandling' in Swedish).