Everyone does it is not actually a persuasive argument that something is a good idea. It was an uphill struggle back in the day to get everyone washing their hands.

This is a predictable outcome of a government creating then storing long term secrets in a database. Governments are not good at keeping secrets. The data will leak.

I don't remember justifying it. Your comment seems a cheap karma grab.

To be fair, The security around the digital system in the Netherlands, is almost painful.

Japan is really good in this, they store everything on paper and fax it around.

They’re also starting with a national ID now though.

Germany supposedly does not have a central registry, I've been informed.

Source? Even the Addresses (Melderegister) are centralized.

edit: Looking it up [0] it looks like there is far more data there, all in a central database since at least 2015 (not sure how it worked before).

[0]: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melderegister#Deutschland

It's been a little while, so perhaps things have changed, but I was told that quite a bit of the data exists only on the card itself.

From your link it seems i was not entirely misinformed: "Contrary to popular belief, there is no central administration of resident registration in Germany. The exception is the registration of resident aliens (see Central Register of Foreign Nationals). Registration is organized by 5283 local offices throughout Germany.[18] "

I'm unable to find the part about cards. will edit or reply more if i do find it.

Looking into it again, it appears the residential registration is indeed decentralized, but most of that data seems to still be saved in a central database thanks to Abgabenordnung § 139b [0].

There is something about sharing that information, but I can’t say I understand the legalese ;)

[0]: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/ao_1977/__139b.html

There is no central database, even after the changes of 2015. It is still hosted by each individual municipality (which is exactly what your link states).

However, there here is a standard API which allows some entities to query all those decentralized registers. It is designed to make it hard to siphon out all data at once (which hopefully trips audit systems in enough places that someone cares to look into).

The only centralized database of that kind is the one at BZSt, which contains far less data. For the moment access is limited to tax-related issues but it will be soon expanded to a centralized base data registry (Registermodernisierung).

What's in the BZSt?

Because of (political) federation I assume, right?

However are the regional governments supposed to develop their own solutions, or are they using a centrally developed database, just with local unconnected instances?

"Contrary to popular belief, there is no central administration of resident registration in Germany. The exception is the registration of resident aliens (see Central Register of Foreign Nationals). Registration is organized by 5283 local offices throughout Germany.[18] "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_registration#Germany

I was also told something on identity cards only lives on the cards, but cannot find the source or details on that.

Each municipality is free to choose their own solution to the legal requirements (which includes a standardized API). For the moment, there are eight different software solutions on the market (developed by both public and private entities), see https://www1.osci.de/meldewesen/xmeld/registrierte-herstelle...

Most EU cards also integrate fiscal id numbers and national healthcare id numbers in the chip but arguably do exclude registered address, so only a city/province of residence is available.

Not sure about the rest but Spanish ID card includes full address.

Italian ID cards too, as well as the owner's signature, the fiscal code (an unique identification code similar to the SSN in the USA) and the fingerprints (though these latter are stored in the chip only, not printed on the card).

It's very likely that this data is also stored in some government database, which I hope will never get breached.

Nitpick (as you well know) - codice fiscale in Italy differs from USA SSN in that, for once, it has never had AFAIK any semblance of secrecy at all, as you can easily construct it starting from name, surname, place and date of birth [1] Funnily enough, this sometimes results in two individuals computing to the same code [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_fiscal_code

[2] https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omocodia

Swiss cards not but well Switzerland is not EU...

It’s part of Schengen though. But I confirm, no adresse on our ID cards.

Not in the UK (which is in Europe but no longer in the EU). Was planned before 2010 and then got scrapped by the subsequent government. What's in the works now?

I think so, but it doesn't mean that it is a good idea... Every bit that creates an official identity should be handled with great care.