Legal Handling of Loss and Access: An Interdisciplinary Investigation into Electronic Identity

Duration
01.02.2024–24.02.2028

The PhD project investigates the legal regulation of access to electronic identity, as well as the norms and case law regarding the distribution of losses resulting from the misuse of electronic identity. Furthermore, it examines how the abuse of electronic ID affects those who are impacted by it.

A hand holding a smart phone over a PC. On the mobile screen there is an icon of a lock.

Illustration photo: Colourbox.

Contact

About the project

My project addresses various issues related to access to, and abuse of, electronic identification (eID/BankID). I investigate the factors that may lead banks to expose vulnerable groups to digital discrimination by denying them access to BankID. Foreigners and people with disabilities risk exclusion from digital financial systems and digital interactions with private and public services because banks believe they do not meet the requirements for BankID.

Furthermore, I examine how losses resulting from the misuse of BankID are distributed. The most common forms of BankID fraud involve the misuse of BankID to make payments without the holder's consent and to sign agreements (most often credit agreements). I employ legal methods to describe how such losses should be distributed, and empirical legal methods to explore how these losses are distributed in lower court practices. I use qualitative methods (interviews) to investigate how BankID fraud affects the victims.

Goals

The objective is to contribute knowledge about the factors that lead commercial actors to assert rights at the expense of consumers, despite legal norms designed to protect consumer rights. Furthermore, I aim to provide insight into the distribution of responsibility in cases of BankID abuse in situations that have not been previously described, and to offer a victim's perspective on how BankID fraud affects those it impacts.

Participants

Funding

Funded by The Research Council of Norway

Project number: 320785

The project is funded by The Research Council of Norway. I am affiliated to the research project Societal Security and Digital Identities (SODI) at the University of Oslo.

Norwegian version of this page
Published June 4, 2025 2:58 PM - Last modified June 4, 2025 2:58 PM