At a recent meeting in the Netherlands, a civil servant sought to reassure journalists and activists that an upcoming, EU-mandated digital identification app would be perfectly safe.
“Unless,” he said, “Google or Apple collude with that man in the White House.”
The remark to a conference centre in Utrecht might have been intended as a joke, but it spoke to anxieties about an application that will carry the personal, sensitive data of EU citizens. This app will allow users not only to confirm their identity but also display educational qualifications and prove their incomes.
The European Commission has required all EU member states to launch a working identity app by the end of this year.
While some countries, such as Germany and France, are creating apps they say will protect the country’s “digital sovereignty”, others – like the Netherlands and Italy – are developing systems that will rely on Apple and Google, even as the EU calls for greater strategic independence from Trump’s US.
This Dutch reliance on US tech giants has prompted concern from security experts.
‘Unconditional’ integration
In 2023, the European Commission published the first version of the technical requirements for the so-called European identity wallet on the software platform GitHub.
These requirements do not oblige member states to use Apple or Google services. Countries are entirely free to build a wallet that does not depend on US technology.
But using the ready-made verification software provided by Google and Apple was by far the easiest way for app developers to meet the technical requirements, Dutch tech expert and commentator Brenno de Winter told Follow the Money.
“If dependence on Google isn’t necessary, why do it?”
The 27 EU member states enthusiastically set about building their own wallet apps. For a long time, no attention was paid to any potential dependence on Google and Apple.
That changed in autumn 2024, when Italian software developers discovered their national app would work only on phones running Google or Apple software.
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According to the GitHub edit history, the same requirement was introduced for the Dutch app in February 2025, roughly a year after the first version was published on GitHub. Integration with Google and Apple’s systems became “unconditional”: users would always need a Google or Apple account.
The Dutch IT community did not appear to pick up on this development.
Nor did it seem to notice when the debate over dependence on US technology intensified last year when the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague was locked out of his Microsoft account.
More than just identification
The Dutch government confirmed to Follow the Money that, as it stands, the NL Wallet will only be able to be used by citizens with a Google or Apple account.
Google and Apple’s software was chosen for security reasons, a spokesperson said. “This provides support and protection for a large user group and has therefore been implemented first.”
The spokesperson said that the app was still in development and no “definitive” design choice had been made. Despite this, he acknowledged that no work was underway on a wallet version that could be used without an Apple or Google account.
Jaap-Henk Hoepman, a privacy expert and associate professor of digital security at Radboud University in the Netherlands, said he was concerned.
“Issuing identity documents, whether paper or digital, is explicitly a government responsibility. The government should keep this under its own control as much as possible and not outsource it to Apple and Google.”
A government app should never depend on an Apple or Google account
Bart Jacobs, professor of computer security, privacy and identity, also at Radboud University, said the design choice “does not sit well with the Dutch and European pursuit of digital autonomy”.
Barbara Kathmann – a member of the Dutch parliament for the left-wing Progressief Nederland who sits on the parliamentary committee for digital affairs – said: “A government app should never depend on an Apple or Google account… Anyone without an account with a US tech giant should still be able to use the same digital services.”
Kathmann pointed out that the country’s existing digital identification service, DigiD, can run without reliance on the US giants.
Hoepman made a similar point, asking: “If dependence on Google isn’t necessary, why do it?”
Citizens’ alternatives
Other countries have taken a different approach to Italy and the Netherlands.
Switzerland – while not an EU-member – is working on a similar app and promised last year, in response to criticism, to work on a Google-free version.
Germany has meanwhile cited “digital sovereignty” as a key objective for its own app. That is why it must ultimately function without Google and Apple’s software, said a spokesperson for the German Ministry of Digital Affairs. Support for Google’s software may well be built in at a later date, but only if it offers “additional security benefits”, he explained.
“Alternative approaches have been studied and implemented”
A spokesperson for the French interior ministry said the “general principle” of France Identité, the French wallet, is to not rely on software from private companies for sensitive matters like verification of identity.
“Alternative approaches have been studied and implemented in order to ensure that the security guarantees required by the French Government remain under public control,” the spokesperson added.
A spokesperson for Poland’s ministry of digital affairs, meanwhile, said that the “final scope and method of implementation” for its digital app “remain[ed] under discussion”.
Even for Dutch citizens wishing to escape Google and Apple’s grip, there is a silver lining.
Anyone is free to build their own app, provided it meets the European Commission’s technical requirements and is approved by the Dutch government.
In the Netherlands, the first private apps are not expected to be approved for official use until the NL Wallet has been launched.
One such private app already available, though not approved for official national or international use, is the Belgian itsme. Another is the Dutch Yivi, built by Nijmegen professor Bart Jacobs.
But Jacobs believes many people will simply install the government’s official wallet. That is why he hopes the official NL Wallet will also work independently of Google and Apple.
A spokesperson for the European Commission said it was “considering” further “clarifying” the document setting out technical requirements for European ID apps.
Additional reporting by Johan Schuijt
