Free e-mail address for every Belgian

By EDRi · March 24, 2004

The Belgian government has announced plans to give every inhabitant of
Belgium a free e-mail address. That is, every Belgian can ask for a free
e-mail alias that can only be used to communicate with the different
governmental authorities. This address will be included in the national
population database, alongside with everybodies street address, city and
date of birth.

The deputy-minister for ‘Government computerisation’, Mr Vanvelthoven,
wishes to promote government communications with this plan, while at the
same time cutting costs and saving the environment.

“We will take care of course that all e-mail addresses will be protected
100 percent”, VanVelthoven said. “The protection of privacy is most
important. Citizens that wish to be contacted by government, have to
communicate an existing e-mail address. We will attach an encrypted alias
to this address, so that we are sure that our addresses can not be abused
by third parties.”

Een e-mail adres voor elke Belg (in Dutch, 13.02.2004)
http://mineco.fgov.be/information_society/administrations/e-government_BE/e-government_nl_002.htm

Une adresse e-mail pour chaque Belge (French, 17.02.2004)
http://www.belgium.be/eportal/application?origin=newsFPSList.jsp&event=bea.portal.framework.internal.refresh&pageid=contentPage&docId=33442