Belgians made massive use of itsme^® in 2020, especially to connect to eHealth services.

The Federal Public Service Strategy and Support (BoSa) has announced the renewal of the itsme^® accreditation for a period of 3 years. For every 10 Belgians who use the government’s online services, 5 access them with their electronic eID card and 4 with the itsme^® digital ID app, a solution launched only 3 years ago.

The year has started well for itsme^®: the Belgian Government has just renewed its official authorisation for the itsme^® app to be used as a secure authentication tool for the Federal Authentication Service (FAS).

The itsme^® app has become a much-appreciated tool for Belgians, which they can use to access government services online. In fact, the use of itsme^® has increased constantly over the past three years - and particularly during the year just past - marked as it has been by the pandemic and the viewing of the many government services related to the health of the Belgians.

Between 2019 and 2020, according to official figures released by the Federal Public Service Strategy and Support (BoSa), the FAS saw the number of authentications increase by 86%, if all access methods to all government applications are taken into account.

In total, over the whole of 2020, more than two million Belgians authenticated themselves to online government services with itsme^®.

And once Belgians have experienced the ease and security of using itsme^® via the FAS, they go on to use it frequently. The result is that, on average, each of these people used the Belgian itsme^® app more than 21 times to access government applications.

Ranked fifth in the Top 5 is CAPAC, the Auxiliary Fund for the Payment of Unemployment Benefits, which was called on a great deal in 2020 due to the health crisis. Number 4 is the My e-Box portal, which enables users to locate all government documents within the same secure environment. In third place we find the MyMinFin platform from FPS Finance, much in demand for Tax On Web, and ranked just behind the various sectors linked to social security (Top 2): MyPension, MyCareer, [email protected], etc.

… eHealth! And the most frequently used tool for Belgians to connect to eHealth is clearly itsme^®. In fact, in 2020, itsme^® became the most popular login method used for the eHealth services. Because of the pandemic, many Belgians connected to the portal to view their health data.

“Since it was first given its official accreditation by the government, itsme^® has been used more and more by Belgians to connect and authenticate themselves online,” states Stephanie De Bruyne, CEO of Belgian Mobile ID. “On average, Belgians use itsme^® 7 to 10 times a month with 150 partners in public and private sectors –with more than 10 million itsme^® authentications a month, itsme^® has been a real success, amply justified by its ease and security. But it also is an example of great success in terms of a public-private partnership, providing a genuine ‘win-win’ for all of the stakeholders concerned.”

Mathieu Michel, Secretary of State for Digitisation, with responsibility for Administrative Simplification, Privacy and Buildings Administration: “The itsme^® app gives all citizens the guarantee of being able to certify their identity with ease. This simplicity also combines efficiency and security. itsme^® is a successful collaboration between the State and a private company and without doubt constitutes a further step towards bolstering the trust that is so essential for the development of an increasingly digital society.”