Introduction of Personalized e-Mail System?
The German state wants to introduce a personalized e-mail system. This would mean that you could create an e-mail account at certified providers connected with your identity card. Germany is hoping to enable legally binding online communication.
Many computer freaks around me say that this was a stupid idea, because they are afraid that the state could observe their messages by cooperating with the providers (who should encrypt the data, but they could give the unencrypted data to the state). A more important argument is that there are already free and open source encryption and signing methods (GnuPG) and some are afraid that you could be forced to buy such an account if enough companies require it.
On the one hand I (personally) like the idea of being able to send legally binding emails, but on the other hand I prefer open solutions, e.g. normal e-mail provider and free encryption method. Deutsche Post once wanted to introduce a lifetime e-mail address, but they had to give up. Now they want to compete against the secure e-mail system of the state. For this reason I am not really sure if the new project will work as desired.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
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