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...
Une adresse e-mail pour chaque Belge (French, 17.02.2004)
http://www.belgium.be/eportal/application?origin=newsFPSList.jsp&e...