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BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

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41–50 of 278 posts

Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can but they'll likely only starting preparing the Rezept when you arrive, and you'll still need to wait 30 minutes. At least that's how my Hausarzt works

You should change your Hausarzt. They can be so careless only because enough people tolerate such behaviour. I just send an email what I need, they reply to me the same day or tomorrow that it's ready to be picked up. I got there, and get it in 2 min.

It's not like they are competing for patients.

In most places it is hard enough to even get an Hausarzt to being with. You might just be lucky to live in a bigger city where you have the ability to choose.

Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#42
post #38

Germany was quite advanced when it came to technology but then the drive to make more of it somehow stopped. It has always been incredibly sad to me that the German ID card (Personalausweis) has an RFID chip inside with trust zones, certificates, authorization features, and much more and just never had been used. Like at all except for getting cigarettes at vending machines. 12 years after the first RFID Personalausw…

You can use the "Online-Personalausweis" for quite some things actually. For example to authenticate at banks, so you don't have to do Video-Ident. Or to do taxes etc. I wrote a post about it earlier this year: https://b.jlel.se/s/59c

Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#43
post #38

Germany was quite advanced when it came to technology but then the drive to make more of it somehow stopped. It has always been incredibly sad to me that the German ID card (Personalausweis) has an RFID chip inside with trust zones, certificates, authorization features, and much more and just never had been used. Like at all except for getting cigarettes at vending machines. 12 years after the first RFID Personalausw…

I heard something yesterday about how you can authenticate digitally for tax documents using the NFC chip in your Personalausweis! You just have to download some app.

But yes, in general, we’re SO CLOSE…then you have to go do Anmeldung with a paper form in person

Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#44

I really like the idea. But I am skeptic - digitalisation of Germany's public services and offices in the past hasn't exactly been a success story.

It hasn’t but it’s on the right track. I am working as a developer in one of the federal agencies and have direct contact with the efforts. It helps a lot that public agencies can now offer a so called IT Zulage of a few hundred euros to 1000 per months that brings salaries on par with the private sector. In my team, this worked wonders and we managed to get some really good people. On the other hand, the task is eno…

why can't you hire consultants to do take on some of the work?

Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#46
post #42
post #38

Germany was quite advanced when it came to technology but then the drive to make more of it somehow stopped. It has always been incredibly sad to me that the German ID card (Personalausweis) has an RFID chip inside with trust zones, certificates, authorization features, and much more and just never had been used. Like at all except for getting cigarettes at vending machines. 12 years after the first RFID Personalausw…

You can use the "Online-Personalausweis" for quite some things actually. For example to authenticate at banks, so you don't have to do Video-Ident. Or to do taxes etc. I wrote a post about it earlier this year: https://b.jlel.se/s/59c

I don't speak german, but by video identification do you mean the system in which you turn in the webcam and it checks your face? If so, that is highly vulnerable to real time face swapping attacks (and possibly just recorded webcam footage). I'm sure you're aware, but these systems need to change.

Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#47
post #24
post #15

So people who need to chat with German govt entities have to do what now?

Currently the best way is via fax or post

*most convenient. The best option is obviously coming in person, with a ring binder containing all relevant documents as well as written records of all previous communication

Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#49
post #28

Makes me happy to read that. One of the bright lights on horizon is that the Bundeswehr opted for a open-source, federated, multi-platform and secure messaging framework. Instead of some proprietary, closed-source piece of crap from a Big-IT vendor which make same depending in a negative way.

This was possible only because Ursula vdL is not in charge of Bundeswehr any more. That being said, god save the EU, since these walking tax-money black hole is now leading the whole EU.

The bwmessenger pilot started already in December 2019.

Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#50
post #16
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And we still have to walk to the doctor's office to get that prescription for the same Asthma medicine you always get every three months. Instead of just getting it electronically to the nearest pharmacy. Now we have to queue up in the doctor's office with sick people, wait for them to print and sign a red piece of paper and then walk to the pharmacy. Maybe this changes too in the future?

> Maybe this changes too in the future? E-Rezept was supposed to launch in 2022 but has been postponed until mid 2023. Some regions already tested it. It didn't work out well, so some regions dropped out of the testing phase. I'm pretty sure it won't work well at launch and we will have to rely on printed prescriptions for quite some time until all pharmacies and doctors use the new system.

It is always puzzling to me with how Germany has many cultural similarities with us Nordics and is an advanced science nation, yet is always so much slower in adopting new technologies. In Norway we have used electronic receipts since 2013. That is like a decade.

But I suspect it is a difference in attitude. I think in Scandinavia we are generally far more enthusiastic about new things.

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