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Australian 'Electronic Pigeon Hole' Could Replace Gov't Snail Mail
angry tapir writes "Australia's federal Opposition will look to create a national government-funded 'electronic pigeon hole' for all Australians in an effort to cut the costs of 'snail mail' communication, if they are returned to power at the next election. According to Opposition communications minister Malcolm Turnbull, the pigeon hole would effectively act as a life-long single source of storage for communications between each citizen and government. The service would be free for Australians in exchange for their agreeing to no longer receive paper-based communications from government agencies and other related organizations."
We've had this in Denmark for 5+ years. E-boks.dk - except it is not only government mail, but all official mail. My bank, insurance - even my salary slip from my company. Also I can upload my own scanned documents into the repository, where it will stay forever.
I haven't received anything important in my mailbox for YEARS. I only check and empty it once every second week (only spam).
The system is secured by the national "Nem-ID" (Easy-ID) system, which is a combination of a password and a one-time pad. Also used by my bank (and all other danish banks. I have an old account in another bank. Same login work for both).
It took a while to get it all running smoothly, but it is really nice now it works. Added advantage is that electronic thefts (stolen login details etc.) from banks dropped to almost 0 nationwide since it was introduced.
Private can work fine providing there is sufficient competition.
Absolutely. Often forgotten when people cry out for laissez faire economies.
Internet access, like other utilities, is a natural monopoly
Almost. Not internet access but fixed line telecommunications. It isn't quite a natural monopoly, but so damn close as not to matter much. Internet access is further up the chain, which is the brilliance of the NBN in my opinion. They allow the competitive environment for IPTV, internet access, and anything else involving high speed and reliable telecoms.
Back on topic, I like Turnbull's idea. Of course this isn't that revolutionary and was part of the justification for the NBN, cost savings for government services. Standardisation of the communications would be fantastic. Perhaps with secure email from certified organisations as the system in Denmark mentioned by irp below. Although, I can't see how you could get spam unless it is just a standard email address which makes the whole thing pointless.
No, even that's bad. The whole concept of an e-service pigeonhole is bad. Here's why:
With paper based communication, the onus of delivery is on the government. If they want to talk to you, then they have to make a reasonable effort to contact you (via registered mail, etc.).
With a pigeonhole, (electronic or otherwise), the onus is reversed. Now if they want to talk to you, they just send something to the pigeonhole whenever. It's up to you to make an effort to read what's in your pigeonhole regularly, to keep up to date on their intentions.
To give just one example, say you are being billed. If they send you mail and you don't pay, you could claim that you didn't receive the bill. If you're on holiday, and they send you registered mail, then there might not be anyone at the house to accept it.
Now suppose you have a pigeonhole. They send the bill there, and expect you to find it. Whatever you do, even if you're on holiday, you've received it and it's your fault if you didn't read it in time.
The onus is already on you to have to check your mail regularly, and checking something electronically is a lot easier.
The government sending snail mail does not usually help you - if you change address (up to *you* to change your address in 10000 different places), go on holiday (up to you to have someone physically check for you), get your mail stolen (up to you to pay for a PO box). I've never received registered mail from the government (a good thing I guess) but I've had plenty of notices (eg failure to vote while overseas) and important documents (drivers license) sent out in the regular mail. In fact my DL was sent to my old postal address because they didn't check the back of the form where you make your postal address change.
Changing the medium also changes responsibility. The postal service is a push system, a pigeon hole is a pull system. With the post, it's the sender's responsibility to make the communication occur, with a pigeonhole it's the receiver's responsibility to make the communication occur. And that will induce all sorts of legal changes over time, because the two modes are just not equivalent. Changing the medium in this case tips the power balance in favour of the government.
the government will be able to read all that mail. No more pesky envelopes or laws to stop them. NO THANKS.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
And what happens when the government decides later to no longer support your browser of choice, or your operating system? Or they use some proprietary plugin or software package that is incompatible with what you have?
Are they going to pay for you to have a new computer, new software licensing, training?
People can complain about snail-mail, but at least it has ZERO compatibility problems and has an extremely easy user interface...