> secure messenger
> built on electron
Hmm
BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration
121–130 of 278 posts
Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
German engineers typically point at politicians to blame for projects being late. But they share the blame. Over-engineering and lack of push-back against feature creep seem to be standard. Often times, the feature creep is homemade, by the engineers themselves. Other countries get things done simpler and thus faster. Be a bit pragmatic and boom, it's live and works. In Germany you first need to create a bunch of Arb…
Oh man, damned if you do, damned if you don’t…
Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn’t take a religious nut or a conspiracy theorist to see the catastrophically enormous downsides of universally mandated, centrally managed, and cryptographically-backed state identification cards, complete with RFID. Imagine, for example, that upon declaring a protest unlawful, the police could simply scan all the RFID-enabled ID cards in the area and issue everyone a court summons. Not carrying an ID card? N…
This is a strawman, and plainly untrue. Many countries have mandatory id. I have personally lived in Argentina and Spain, both of them have it, for close to a century (89 years in Spain, 54 years in Argentina, but it replaced a pre-exisitng system). The Spanish DNI has RFID. In neither place, nor any country with mandatory ID as far as I know, you get "no access to anything". The worst thing that can happen is that i…
If anything, I'm annoyed by having to have three IDs in my pocket (ID, drivers license, health insurance card) and still not being able to achieve much with them alone. There's usually some other document involved (proof of residence, birth certificate, something else).
Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a user of some public sector German IT Services (provided by dataport to be specific) I have to say that I wouldn't work on them for double my current wage. The jank was incredible and just using them you could feel the spaghetti code, incompetence and age. My advice would be to stay away as far as possible. As a user and as a developer.
With this approach, it's not likely to ever improve. If they can't get good talent to come in and "fix" things, it will probably only continue to get worse
Indeed. But that only affects me in so far as I can't avoid using the services they offer.
Besides that it is not my problem nor am I in a position to make it my problem.
Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
Me reading the comments... So that's how Sweden must have felt a decade ago.
Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
Worth calling out imo, in our current world you have recourse and an ability to "recover" from identity theft (to some extent). If the government controls your identity and revokes some piece, what can you do?
What stops them from doing that today? What stops a government from not renewing your driver's license or passport or not issuing a SIN/SSN or leaking your SIN/SSN? How about just denying you federal services _after_ providing ID? How about putting you on a watch list? Governments have been using IDs to deny services to oppressed peoples since IDs existed, but I think the options that leaves you with is to fight for…
I don't disagree that there are ways the government can deny you service now, just mean wrt a non-government example like identity theft, you at least have some path forward.
Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration
#127As mentioned in the article, the German health services already adopted Matrix for their "TI-Messenger", which is supposed to make secure communication between health care professionals easier. Or, well, possible at all. Right now this is a morass of "don't mention anything private" emails, letters and faxes. I'm surprised that ticker tape isn't involved somehow. But don't worry, if German health services doing somet…
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?
I wonder how much this is solely technical. Sure, if it's something like asthma medication or insulin, its' completely superfluous. But if I remember correctly, doctors have a few incentives for this. Part of them rather good, like a fear of over-medication, part of them related to budgets with the insurance companies etc.
The health industry is very weird from top to bottom. True for most countries, but Germany certainly adds a few cherries on top. Or at least massively diluted cherry essences…
Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn’t take a religious nut or a conspiracy theorist to see the catastrophically enormous downsides of universally mandated, centrally managed, and cryptographically-backed state identification cards, complete with RFID. Imagine, for example, that upon declaring a protest unlawful, the police could simply scan all the RFID-enabled ID cards in the area and issue everyone a court summons. Not carrying an ID card? N…
This is a strawman, and plainly untrue. Many countries have mandatory id. I have personally lived in Argentina and Spain, both of them have it, for close to a century (89 years in Spain, 54 years in Argentina, but it replaced a pre-exisitng system). The Spanish DNI has RFID. In neither place, nor any country with mandatory ID as far as I know, you get "no access to anything". The worst thing that can happen is that i…
Western Europe is one example where IDs have not been abused. But China is another example where they have been.
If you give your governments tools that can be used for oppression, even if they aren’t abused today, it would make it easier for a new authoritarian government to abuse them later on.
Spain was a dictatorship for much of the 20th century and Argentina had had multiple military dictatorships too — it could happen again. Europeans are far too confident that they have overcome the problems of the past by building the EU etc. A bit more American-style distrust of government would be a good thing.
Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration
#129Quoted post unavailable.
It doesn’t take a religious nut or a conspiracy theorist to see the catastrophically enormous downsides of universally mandated, centrally managed, and cryptographically-backed state identification cards, complete with RFID. Imagine, for example, that upon declaring a protest unlawful, the police could simply scan all the RFID-enabled ID cards in the area and issue everyone a court summons. Not carrying an ID card? N…
In Germany at least there are several measures in place to make this slippery slope a fallacy (as it usually is) and not realistic.
You can pick whether you want to have an ID card or a passport or both. You are not required to carry your ID card with you.
In general the actually existing surveillance of mobile phones that were in a certain area at a certain time is much more worrisome to me.
Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Germans have diffuse fears of new technology. Many of us are skeptical whenever it comes to new gadgets, especially if the risk of being tracked or spied on plays a role. Eventually most people level out and get it anyway, like the cell phone, the smart phone, credit cards, Google/Apple pay, etc. Not sure if our history has something to do with it so that many feel uneasy about giving away too much control about our…
What's your level of comparison here? Japan? New economies?
If you contrast it with the US, you'll find some technologies earlier in use in Germany, like texting, and some stuff that just went different (credit vs. debit cards). And talk to someone from the US or even the UK about mandatory ID cards, and you'll hear different things about privacy.
I think this specifically is mostly to blame on bureaucracy and the federal system, not a reflection of general German luddism. Nobody really wants fax machines.