Estonian ID Card - Cryptographic Use

Cryptographic Use

The card's chip stores a key pair, allowing users to cryptographically sign digital documents based on principles of public key cryptography using DigiDoc. While it is possible also to encrypt documents using the card-holder's public key, this is used only infrequently, as such documents would become unreadable if the card were lost or destroyed.

Under Estonian law, since 15 December 2000 the cryptographic signature is legally equivalent to a manual signature.