President Emmanuel Macron has announced that France will implement a nationwide facial recognition ID application to give citizens a more secure digital identity. 

The ID program, Alicem, will roll out in November after an experimental six-month test phase. Alicem - an acronym for “certified online authentification on mobile" - is an application enabling “any individual who decides to use it to prove his identity on the internet in a secure manner,” says the interior ministry website, according to a news report. The app reads the chip on an electronic passport and crosses its biometric photo with the phone user via facial recognition to validate identity, notes the report.