Another year has come and gone, so as in 2021, and 2022, it’s time for what is becoming a New Year’s tradition: the 2023 Freja retrospective!
Although there is always a lot of exciting stuff happening in Freja constantly (we try to share as much of it as we can through Explore), let’s mix things up this year. So we’ll go through this year month by month for a recap of the most noteworthy highlights of 2023.
Let’s go!
January: the Fight Against Digital Exclusion Continues
We have talked and posted at length about our fight to end digital exclusion in Sweden. The gist of it is – 10% of Swedes are living in digital exclusion i.e. they are being excluded from accessing the thousands of e-services that many people take for granted on a daily basis.
At the end of 2022, we launched our ‘All ska med’ campaign whose primary goal was to petition the Swedish government to enshrine in law that all persons have equal access to digital services in Sweden.
In January of this year the government initiated the work to create a law to include everyone – first important step. And in October, something very big happened!
February: DHL Comes into the Fold
In addition to PostNord and Schenker DB that already accepted Freja’s digital ID card, DHL joined us in February.
Not only do they accept Freja for physical identification, you may also use Freja to pre-identify yourself in the DHL portal to get a secure QR code when picking a package.
DHL was a huge boost to the number of places where Freja is accepted as a physical ID, now numbering over 10 000 locations across Sweden.
March: ID Card in Freja Receives Facelift
Speaking about physical identification in Freja, the digital ID card received a facelift and security update in March.
If we wanted the Freja ID card to be used more, we knew that we had to give it a fresh new look and a host of additional security features so that you could use it safely in as many places as possible.
April: Prisjakt Becomes a Partner
April saw the arrival of a cool new partner to Freja – Prisjakt.
If you’re not sure what it is they do, they are an online service that helps you compare prices in online stores for the best possible shopping decision.
Our collaboration with Prisjakt is exciting because it gives you unbiased, correct information so that you can make the choice that is best for you.
May: Quick Method for Freja+ Introduced
May saw the launch of a feature that we had been working on for a while, intended to ease and simplify the registration process in Freja. Especially important is that users would no longer need to do a security check with our agents to get Freja+.
In collaboration with DIGG – the Swedish Agency for Digital Government – we would start granting Freja+ immediately to people who registered in Freja with their biometric passport.
We are extremely happy to say that, since then, we have seen a surge of people coming directly to Freja+ and having fewer problems in the registration process.
June: Freja Becomes Available Across the EU
Registration improvements didn’t end with that. In June we launched another feature that would allow the citizens of all EU countries to be able to register an account in Freja with their passport.
In this way, Freja has taken the first step to becoming an EU-wide and recognisable Swedish e-ID.
July: Freja Widget
Summer was the perfect time for the launch of the much-requested widget.
Smart, cool and fresh, your digital identity card is now just one tap away for quick identification.
August: Zmarta
Now it’s time to mention another cool partner in Freja.
With Zmarta you can easily compare loans and insurances for the best possible fiscal decision. In addition, they always have great tips and advice regarding personal finance in general.
Zmarta is divided into several components all easily available through Freja’s Explore for quick and easy access and reading.
September: Physical OrgID
To the world of Organisation ID now, Freja’s e-ID for organisations and the workplace.
Org ID had been widely used for online identification, however, this September we launched the first physical ID cards within Org ID.
The Swedish Union of Journalists (Journalistförbundet) and the Swedish Association of Professional Photographers (Svenska Fotografers Förbund) will be among the first to begin issuing and using Freja’s Org ID as official credentials to their members.
October: The law for Freja is proposed!
Following the law preparations that was initiated by the government in January, a first proposal was presented on the 16th of January. The proposal to the government is to make it a requirement for all public sector services to support all approved eIDs.
This is a great step forward and hopefully this also eventually will become the law.
November: Riksidrottförbundet Chooses Freja
Riksidrottsförbundet have chosen Freja to be a login method for their digital platform IdrottOnline, in addition to the usual username and password. The purpose of the platform is to ease administration and communication between sports associations and districts.
The aim is to provide everyone using the platform a safer and easier method of accessing the platform.
December: Freja Welcomes Nordnet
We end the year with news of an amazing new partner in Freja – Nordnet, the Nordics’ largest digital platform for savings and investments.
Nordnet have made it so that you can log in with Freja safely and securely to check the status of your account, investments, savings etc.
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And that’s it for 2023! Thank you for being on this journey with us.
There are many, many other cool things that we would love to share with you, exciting features in partners in the works! So stay tuned, have a wonderful end of year and we’ll see you in 2024.
Happy new year!
