De-Mail

De-Mail is a German E-Government communications service that makes it possible to exchange legal electronic documents between citizens, agencies, and businesses over the Internet. The project called Bürgerportal is realized by the German government in cooperation with private business partners in an effort to reduce communication costs of administration and companies.

The project was announced in 2008 and has been accepted by Bundestag and Bundesrat in early 2011. It is expected to go into law during the first half of 2011.

Contents

Background

With the introduction of De-Mail the German legislation implements the EU Directive on services in the internal market which demands that authorities accept legally binding electronical communication until the end of 2009.

The government only specifies legal and technical requirements for the services, but is not going to provide these. This role will be taken by private companies which will be allowed to provide De-Mail services after an official certification process.

Services

Besides email communication, other services are specified that support the communication process.

Usage

Usage should be voluntary all users, and should only be an additional option to postal mail.

Criticism

Several aspects of the law have sparked criticism of the system.

Current Providers

The following companies are currently certified as De-Mail providers

See also

References

  1. ^ netzpolitik.org: De-Mail Draw Law, July 2nd 2010

External links