What are a register, a public authority (Behörde) and a UID entity?

A register is a data set kept by official bodies under an explicit legal mandate, such as the residents', lawyers', civil-status or commercial register; a public authority is an organ of the state (federal, cantonal) or of an autonomous administrative body (district, municipality) that performs public-administration tasks and represents it externally; a UID entity is any enterprise or institution that receives a Swiss enterprise identification number (UID) under the UIDG, understood broadly as every "customer of the public administration" with enterprise characteristics.

Registers are the classic reliable sources for identification in e-government.

Go deeper:

• UID register (uid.admin.ch) — the Swiss business identification number register run by the Federal Statistical Office.