Belgians say your national ID card is sensitive and should not be presented to non-gov entities, but reality differs. Mobib refused.

Several Belgians have said generally the national ID card is for official government operations not for the private sector; willy-nilly requests to show it should be refused in general. But then in reality ID card is demanded in countless commercial non-gov scenarios:

• GSM registration
• banks when opening accounts
• receiving bPost registered letters (bPost is technically a private enterprise)
• bPost cash→electronic payments on invoices
• Flixbus to confirm travellers are those named on tickets (drivers refuse Mobib cards as ID proof)
• Electro-Depot asks for ID if you want an extended warranty on an appliance

I think the first two are likely part of a government mandate. But what about the other cases? As a test, I sometimes present my Mobib card which shows my pic and name. Certainly the Mobib card is less sensitive than the ID card. Sometimes it’s accepted.

bPost

When paying an invoice via bPost, the demand for ID is quite intrusive. They don’t just look at the card, they make a record of it. There is a trend of finance orgs willy-nilly overcollecting more information than KYC laws actually require. In some countries, the KYC laws are written that banks /can/ collect whatever they want, but it’s not obligatory beyond some very mininal basic info. Then banks go ape-shit collecting all because the KYC law gives them liability immunity if the info is leaked or misused.

Is there a legal obligation for bPost to know who pays an invoice along with the residential address of the payer? The GDPR is being violated in Belgium with reckless disregard and people just go along with it, so I wonder if this is yet another case of data minimization not being adhered to.

Flixbus

I’m not sure if Flixbus treats national and international trips differently, but in any case I cannot see good cause for demanding national ID/passport when only crossing Schengen borders. I suspect the only reason Flixbus cares is because ticket pricing is dynamic and they want to prevent consumers selling/tranferring tickets to other consumers -- which is purely a commercial motive.

A Flixbus driver once accepted my Mobib card for ID. The line rightfully moves so fast they don’t seem to really be comparing names. If I presented an ID with the name “Cookie Monster” they probably wouldn’t notice. But anyway, other drivers have refused the Mobib card. If it’s true that national ID cards are only for official uses, I have to question the lawfulness of Flixbus demanding gov ID for the apparent purpose of mitigating ticket transfers from one person to another.

Does anyone know anything concrete about obligations to present ID cards?

If I had refused to show the Flixbus driver my ID card, he would have refused me service. Would that be legally actionable?