The mObywatel application has been downloaded a total of 19 million times. The most commonly used features are currently reservation of the PESEL number or application for an energy voucher. In the middle of August, the Safe on the Net service appeared, enabling users of the latest version of the application to more quickly report internet fraud. In September, it will be expanded with a knowledge base with articles from CERT Polska experts. More functionalities may appear later this year, including the possibility to add a blood donor card to the system or the mAccident service.
“Quite soon there will be a blood donor card or mAccident – a functionality that will allow you to exchange statements during a road collision using mObywatel,” says Jacek Siemiończyk, Deputy Director of the Central IT Center in a conversation with the Newseria Biznes agency. “I hope it will be this year. We are working to make it more than just exchanging statements – also the possibility of reporting damage directly to the insurer.”
Work is underway to integrate further electronic documents with the mObywatel ecosystem, such as local ones – senior cards or cards of a resident of a given JST, a disabled person’s card, a teacher’s card. Through the application, it will also be possible to apply for your and your child’s ID card, check its status or use a chatbot, i.e. a virtual assistant informing about state services.
Jacek Siemiończyk, Deputy Director of the COI, highlights that “many functionalities that are already available in the application were created based on requests we received from application users. Good examples are a blood donor card or a card for people with disabilities. All suggestions from our users are verified and after this verification they go to the production pipeline of programming teams and are part of what appears in mObywatel”.
The Central IT Center also plans to introduce the possibility of suspending and unsuspending an ID card, developing Tax Office services and integrating further documents, such as a PhD student card, a retiree pensioner’s card of the MSWiA or a certificate of the right to practice the pharmacy and laboratory diagnostician profession. Today in mObywatel you can find information about fines and penalty points, vehicle history or air quality.
“The number of Polish people who trust the application is over 19 million citizens have downloaded the application, over 7 million citizens actively use the ID available in mObywatel. We were given high ratings from Google Play or the App Store, over 4.8 on a scale of 1 to 5,” says Jacek Siemiończyk.
The mObywatel 2.0 application has been available for download since July 14, 2023. The Act on the mObywatel application introduced a new document – mID, which can be used to confirm your identity as traditional an ID card or passport (with a few exceptions, e.g. at the airport). The application also provides a number of features that make it easier to handle official matters – through mObywatel you can settle some of your obligations towards offices using Blik, and since August 21 also with payment cards. Next year, the payment options are planned to be expanded to include digital Apple Pay and Google Pay wallets.
“The most commonly used functionalities in mObywatel are the reservation of the PESEL number. About 40 thousand people use this every day,” points out the Deputy Director General in the Central IT Center. “There are also functionalities used periodically, such as those related to elections or those related to making functionalities available, such as the energy voucher.”
Reservation of the PESEL number using mObywatel has been possible since the beginning of the year. It effectively protects against attempts at identity theft, making it difficult for fraudsters to use data to take out a loan or sign contracts.
Also in the first two weeks, 155 thousand energy vouchers were applied for, 100 thousand of which were in the mObywatel application and 55 thousand through the portal. The voucher is a one-time payment for electricity bills for the second half of 2024.
In mObywatel 2.0 in the middle of August, a service appeared that allows you to easily report disturbing incidents on the network, such as a fake website or a suspicious email or SMS. The Safe on the Net feature will increase the number of notifications considered by a team of specialists from CERT Polska, who deal with reacting to cybersecurity threats every day.
In the eGovernment Benchmark 2024 report evaluating digital public services in Europe, Poland scored 69 points (an increase of 7 points compared to the previous year). Our country stands out with an improvement in user support (100 points, above the EU-27 average of 94 points), transparency of service design (75 points, above the EU-27 average of 59 points) and in the scope of eDocuments (92 points, above the EU-27 average of 83 points).
