tol.org 21 February 2018
A bill to establish the world’s first data embassy in Luxembourg passed through the first reading in the Estonian parliament (Riigikogu) on Tuesday, reports ERR News, the news service of the Estonian public broadcaster, citing BNS. The document still needs to be ratified by the Estonian parliament, while lawmakers in Luxembourg have already approved it.
The data embassy will host Estonian data and information systems in Luxembourg’s high-security national data center.
In June 2017, Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas and Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel signed an agreement “on housing data and information systems” between the two countries, according to a press release of the Estonian government.
“A majority of daily open services of Estonia are digital,” Ratas said at the time. “Data security and cyber security are generally crucial from the perspective of both people’s confidence and the functioning of services. It is also an important part of the so-called daily digital hygiene in increasingly digitizing societies.”
The project is estimated to cost 2.2 million euros ($2.7 million) over five years, with funding from the European Regional Development Fund and 15 percent out of the budget of the Estonian government, according to ERR.
The project is likely to further cement Estonia’s reputation of being one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. Its e-Estonia platform has digitalized government services and bureaucracy to a great extent.
The caveat is that any technological glitch can result in a large-scale crisis. In November almost 800,000 of Estonia’s 1.3 million inhabitants were blocked from using their government-issued electronic ID cards after authorities identified a possible security flaw in the cards.
The cards allow citizens to access a wide range of government and private company services online, including school reports, health and pension records, medical prescriptions, and voting in elections.
• The tentative deadline for the completion of the data embassy is June 2018.
• The agreement is likely to set precedents in the fields of international communication and international law.
Advertisement / Reklaam
Advertisement / Reklaam
Compiled by Savannah Delgross
