What a digital government looks like | Anna Piperal
Summary
TLDREl discurso aborda la transformación de Estonia en la sociedad digital más avanzada del mundo. Desde 2001, los ciudadanos declaran impuestos en línea, utilizan identidad y firma digital y votan electrónicamente. La mayoría de los servicios públicos están disponibles en internet, y el gobierno ha digitalizado sus operaciones para eliminar la burocracia. Esto se ha logrado con principios como la privacidad, la identidad digital, el principio 'Sólo una vez' y la propiedad de los datos. Además, se destaca la importancia de la seguridad cibernética y el programa e-Residency que permite a personas de todo el mundo acceder a servicios y operar empresas dentro del marco legal de la UE.
Takeaways
- 🇪🇪 Estonia ha logrado digitalizar casi todos sus servicios públicos tras recuperar su independencia.
- 📲 Los ciudadanos de Estonia pueden declarar impuestos en línea desde 2001, usando una identidad digital y firma desde 2002, y votar en línea desde 2005.
- 💻 La mayoría de los servicios públicos en Estonia son accesibles en línea, desde la educación hasta la justicia y la salud.
- 🔒 La identidad digital garantiza la privacidad y seguridad de los datos, y está respaldada por una firma digital legalmente vinculante en la UE.
- 🚫 El gobierno de Estonia sigue el principio de 'Once only', que evita la duplicación de datos, lo que garantiza que la información se proporcione solo una vez y no se almacene en múltiples lugares.
- 🛣️ La plataforma X-Road permite el intercambio seguro de datos entre bases de datos del sector público y privado, evitando puntos únicos de fallo.
- 🔗 La integridad de los datos se asegura mediante blockchain, que actúa como auditor en tiempo real, garantizando que no se alteren registros sin dejar huella.
- 📊 En Estonia, los ciudadanos son los propietarios de sus datos y pueden ver quién accede a su información a través de registros detallados.
- 🌐 Estonia ha lanzado el programa de e-Residency, que permite a personas de todo el mundo establecer empresas y operar dentro del marco legal de la UE de manera virtual.
- 🏛️ A pesar de los avances digitales, los desafíos políticos y la polarización aún persisten, pero Estonia sigue priorizando la transparencia, seguridad y confianza en su sistema digital.
Q & A
¿Qué situación enfrentó Estonia después de recuperar su independencia?
-Tras recuperar su independencia de la ocupación soviética, Estonia se encontraba sin infraestructura, administración ni código legal, enfrentando un caos organizacional.
¿Cómo influyeron los visionarios y técnicos en el desarrollo digital de Estonia?
-Estonia tuvo la suerte de contar con visionarios, criptógrafos e ingenieros que ayudaron a diseñar soluciones tecnológicas innovadoras, lo que contribuyó a su transformación digital.
¿Cuáles son las tres cosas que los ciudadanos de Estonia aún no pueden hacer en línea?
-En Estonia, los ciudadanos aún no pueden recoger documentos de identificación, casarse o divorciarse, ni vender bienes raíces en línea.
¿Qué es el principio de 'Once Only' y cómo beneficia a los ciudadanos?
-El principio de 'Once Only' garantiza que el Estado no puede pedir los mismos datos más de una vez ni almacenarlos en varios lugares, lo que reduce la duplicación de datos y asegura que siempre estén actualizados.
¿Qué es la X-Road y cuál es su función en el sistema digital de Estonia?
-La X-Road es una plataforma de intercambio de datos que conecta bases de datos del sector público y privado, permitiendo un intercambio de datos seguro en tiempo real y dejando un rastro auditable.
¿Cómo garantiza Estonia la integridad de sus datos digitales?
-Estonia utiliza una forma de blockchain, creada en 2007, para verificar la integridad de los datos en tiempo real, asegurando que cualquier acceso o manipulación quede registrado.
¿Cómo garantiza Estonia la privacidad de los datos de sus ciudadanos?
-Estonia permite que los ciudadanos sean los dueños de sus propios datos, garantizando que tengan derecho a saber qué información se recopila sobre ellos y quién ha accedido a ella, todo a través de registros auditables.
¿Qué son las 'embajadas de datos' y por qué son importantes para Estonia?
-Las embajadas de datos son copias de seguridad de los activos digitales más críticos de Estonia, almacenadas fuera del territorio nacional para garantizar la continuidad operativa y la soberanía en caso de un ataque físico.
¿Qué es el programa de e-Residencia y cómo beneficia a personas fuera de Estonia?
-El programa de e-Residencia permite que personas de todo el mundo establezcan empresas y realicen actividades bancarias en Estonia de forma digital, aprovechando el marco legal de la Unión Europea.
¿Cuáles son algunos de los retos o desventajas de una sociedad completamente digital como Estonia?
-Aunque la digitalización es más eficiente, algunos sienten que la tecnología amenaza sus habilidades o reduce la importancia de la participación humana en la política. Además, la digitalización no ha eliminado las luchas de poder político ni la polarización en la sociedad.
Outlines
🇪🇪 La Transformación Digital de Estonia
Hace casi 30 años, Estonia comenzó de cero tras la ocupación soviética, enfrentándose a una reconstrucción total. Sin infraestructura ni administración, el país experimentó con soluciones innovadoras, lo que llevó a una transformación digital profunda. Hoy, Estonia es reconocida como una de las sociedades más digitalizadas del mundo, con la mayoría de los servicios públicos ofrecidos en línea. Desde la declaración de impuestos hasta el acceso a registros de salud, todo está digitalizado. Estonia ha eliminado gran parte de la burocracia tradicional, creando un sistema eficiente y accesible basado en tecnología avanzada y confianza digital.
🔒 El Principio de 'Solo Una Vez'
El principio de 'Solo una vez' significa que el estado no puede solicitar ni almacenar la misma información más de una vez, lo que garantiza la eficiencia y evita la duplicación de datos. Por ejemplo, si se proporciona un certificado de nacimiento, este solo se guarda en un lugar, y ninguna otra institución puede pedirlo de nuevo. Este enfoque distribuido evita puntos únicos de fallo y asegura que la información esté siempre accesible y actualizada a través de la plataforma de intercambio de datos X-Road, que permite intercambios de datos en tiempo real de forma segura y auditada entre bases de datos públicas y privadas.
💻 Privacidad, Integridad y Blockchain
La privacidad, la integridad y la propiedad de los datos son fundamentales en el sistema digital de Estonia. Se utiliza blockchain para garantizar que la integridad de los datos no sea manipulada, rastreando todos los accesos a la información personal. Los ciudadanos tienen control absoluto sobre sus datos y pueden ver quién ha accedido a su información, lo que crea transparencia y confianza. Este enfoque es un pilar clave en la construcción de una sociedad digital confiable y segura, en la que se prioriza la protección y el control de la información personal.
🤖 Servicios Proactivos y Resiliencia Cibernética
Estonia está avanzando hacia una nueva generación de servicios públicos proactivos, que se activan automáticamente según situaciones de vida como el nacimiento de un hijo o el desempleo. Aunque la sociedad digital de Estonia es sólida, el país ha aprendido de ciberataques pasados, como el incidente de 2007, que bloqueó redes durante horas. Desde entonces, la ciberseguridad ha sido una prioridad, con la creación de embajadas de datos que almacenan copias de seguridad fuera del país para garantizar la soberanía digital, incluso en caso de ataques físicos.
🌍 El Programa de e-Residencia: Inclusión Digital Global
El programa de e-Residencia de Estonia, lanzado hace cinco años, permite que personas de todo el mundo accedan a servicios digitales estonios, como la creación de empresas y la gestión bancaria, todo dentro del marco legal de la Unión Europea. Este sistema es independiente de la ubicación y pone la seguridad, la transparencia y la propiedad de los datos en el centro, ofreciendo una plataforma abierta e inclusiva para empresarios globales. La e-Residencia es un ejemplo de cómo Estonia prioriza la accesibilidad y la innovación en su sociedad digital.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Independencia de Estonia
💡Sociedad digital
💡Identidad digital
💡Firma digital
💡Principio 'Once Only'
💡X-Road
💡Blockchain
💡Propiedad de los datos
💡Ciberseguridad
💡e-Residency
Highlights
Estonia rebuilt itself after Soviet occupation with no infrastructure, administration, or legal code.
Estonia became the most digital society in the world, introducing online tax filing in 2001, digital identity in 2002, and online voting in 2005.
Estonians can perform nearly all public services online, including education, justice, and healthcare, with only three exceptions: picking up ID documents, getting married or divorced, and selling real estate.
Tax declarations in Estonia are made easy with prefilled data on income and deductions, requiring only a few minutes to complete.
Estonians have not needed to visit a government office in years due to the extensive digitalization of services.
Estonia reduced bureaucracy by digitizing the government itself, including the cabinet of ministers operating with a fully paperless system.
One of Estonia’s core principles is data privacy and confidentiality, guaranteed through strong digital identities and legally binding digital signatures.
Estonia implemented a 'Once only' principle, meaning citizens only need to provide their data once, avoiding duplication across government databases.
The X-Road data exchange platform allows secure, real-time data sharing between public sector databases, without any centralization.
Estonia uses blockchain technology, introduced in 2007, to ensure the integrity of data and to provide transparency by recording all access to citizen data.
The Estonian system gives individuals ownership of their personal data and allows them to track who has accessed their information.
Artificial intelligence is being integrated into Estonia’s digital systems to provide proactive public services based on life events like childbirth or unemployment.
To safeguard against cyberattacks and ensure continuity, Estonia has created data embassies outside its borders to protect critical digital assets.
The e-Residency program launched in Estonia allows non-residents to establish and run businesses digitally within the European Union legal framework.
Estonia's digital system emphasizes inclusiveness, openness, transparency, and puts control of personal data into the hands of its rightful owner.
Transcripts
Almost 30 years ago,
my country was facing the need to rebuild everything from scratch.
After years of Soviet occupation,
Estonia regained its independence, but we were left with nothing.
No infrastructure, no administration, no legal code.
Organizational chaos.
Out of necessity,
the state leaders back then had to make some daring choices.
The ones that our country could afford.
There was a lot of experimentation and uncertainty
but also a bit of luck involved,
particularly in the fact that we could count on a number
of brilliant visionaries,
cryptographers and engineers.
I was just a kid back then.
Today, we are called the most digital society on earth.
I'm from Estonia,
and we've been declaring taxes online since 2001.
We have been using digital identity and signature since 2002.
We've been voting online since 2005.
And for today, pretty much the whole range of the public services
that you can imagine:
education, police, justice, starting a company,
applying for benefits, looking at your health record
or challenging a parking ticket --
that's everything that is done online.
In fact, it's much easier to tell you
what are the three things we cannot yet do online.
We have to show up to pick up our ID documents,
get married or divorced,
or sell real estate.
That's pretty much it.
So, that's why don't freak out
when I tell you that every year
I can't wait to start doing my tax declaration.
(Laughter)
Because all I have to do
is sit on my couch with a mobile phone,
swipe a few pages with prefilled data on income and deductions
and hit submit.
After three minutes,
I'm looking at the tax return amount.
It actually feels like a quite rewarding experience.
No tax advisors,
no collecting receipts,
no doing the math.
And have I mentioned that I have not visited a state office
for almost seven years?
Indeed, one of the features of the modern life
that has no reason to exist anymore,
considering technological possibilities of today,
is the labyrinth of bureaucracy.
We've almost got rid of it completely in Estonia,
in an effort coordinated by the government that has also digitized itself.
For instance, cabinet of ministers' work in e-Cabinet is absolutely paperless.
The central idea behind this development
is transformation of the state role
and digitalization of trust.
Think about it.
In most countries, people don't trust their governments.
And the governments don't trust them back.
And all the complicated paper-based formal procedures
are supposed to solve that problem.
Except that they don't.
They just make life more complicated.
I believe Estonian experience is showing that technology can be the remedy
for getting the trust back,
while creating an efficient,
user-centric service delivery system
that actively responds to citizens' needs.
We did not do it by digitizing bureaucracy as it is.
But by rather agreeing on a few strong, common principles,
redesigning rules and procedures,
getting rid of unnecessary data collection
and task duplication,
and becoming open and transparent.
Let me give you a glimpse
into some of the key e-Estonia design principles today.
First, it is essential to guarantee privacy and confidentiality
of data and information.
This is achieved through a strong digital identity
that is issued by the state
and compatible with everything.
In fact, every Estonian has one.
The identity is doubled with a strong digital signature
that is accepted, used and legally binding
both in Estonia and the European Union.
When the system can properly and securely identify who is using it,
after logging in, it will provide access to the personal data of the citizen
and all the public services within one tool,
and allow to authorize anything by signing digitally.
A second principle, and one of the most transformative,
is called "Once only."
It means that the state cannot ask for the same data
more than once,
nor can store it in more than one place.
For instance,
if you've already provided your birth or marital certificate
to the population registry,
this is the only place where this data is going to be held.
And no other institution will be ever asking for it again.
Once only is a very powerful rule,
as it defines the whole structure of the data collection in a country,
what information is collected
and who is responsible for maintaining it,
making sure we avoid centralization of data,
duplication of data,
and guarantee that it's actually up to date.
This distributed approach also avoids the problem
of the single point of failure.
But since the data cannot be replicated,
or collected more than once,
it means that the design has to keep in mind
secure and robust access to that information at all times,
so the public institution can offer a service.
This is exactly the role of the data exchange platform
called the X-Road
that has been in use since 2001.
Just like a highway,
it connects public sector databases and registries,
local municipalities and businesses,
organizing a real-time, secure and regulated data exchange,
saving an auditable trace after each move.
Here's a screenshot of a live feed
showing all the requests performed on the X-Road
and all the services that it actually facilitates.
And this is the real picture
of all the connections between public and private sector databases.
As you can see,
there is no central database whatsoever.
Confidentiality and privacy are definitely very important.
But in the digital world,
reliability and integrity of information
is just critical for operations.
For instance,
if someone changes your medical health record,
let's say allergies,
without you or your doctor knowing,
treatment could be deadly.
That's why in a digital society, a system like an Estonian one,
when there's almost no paper originals,
there's almost only digital originals,
integrity of data,
data exchange rules, software components
and log files is paramount.
We use a form of blockchain that we invented back in 2007,
way before blockchain even became a thing,
to check and guarantee the integrity of data in real time.
Blockchain is our auditor
and a promise that no access to the data
or data manipulation remains unrecorded.
Data ownership is another key principle in the design of the system.
Aren't you worried by the fact that governments, tech companies
and other businesses around the world
claim data they've collected about you is theirs,
generally refuse to give access to that information,
and often fail to prove how it was used
or shared with third parties?
I don't know, for me it seems like a quite disturbing situation.
The Estonian system is based on the principle
that an individual is the owner of the data collected about him,
thus has an absolute right to know what information is collected
and who has been accessing it.
Every time a policeman, a doctor or any state officer
is accessing personal information of the citizens online,
first they only get to access it after logging in
to the information they're authorized to see to do their job.
And secondly, every time they're making requests,
this is saved in a log file.
This detailed log file is part of the state public services
and allows real transparency,
making sure no privacy violation will remain unnoticed to the citizen.
Now, of course, this is only a simplified summary
of all the design principles that e-Estonia is built on.
And now, government is building up
to get ready for use of artificial intelligence
and building a whole new generation of public services --
proactive services
that would activate seamlessly
based on different life situations that people might be in,
such as childbirth, unemployment or starting a business.
Now, of course,
running a digital society with no paper backup
can be an issue, right?
Even though we trust our systems to be solid,
but one can never be too cautious as we experienced back in 2007,
when the first cyberincident happened,
and it literally blocked part of our networks,
making access to the services impossible for hours.
We survived.
But this event put cybersecurity at the very top of agenda,
both in terms of strengthening the platform and backing it up.
So how do you back up a country-wide system in a small state
where everything is super close?
Well for instance, you can export a copy of the data
outside the country territory
to an extraterritorial space of an embassy.
Today, we have those data embassies
that are holding the most critical digital assets of Estonia,
guaranteeing continuity of operations,
protection of our data,
and most importantly, our sovereignty.
Even in case of a physical attack on our territory.
Some of you might be thinking by now:
Where are the downsides?
Well, going all digital
is administratively, and let's be honest, financially more efficient.
Interfacing primarily with computer systems
might create an impression that the human factor,
elected politicians
and participating in democratic processes
is somehow less important.
And there are also some people
who feel threatened by pervasive technology
that might make their skills obsolete.
So all in all, unfortunately,
running a country on a digital platform
has not saved us from political power struggles
and polarization in the society,
as we have seen in the last elections.
Well, until there are humans involved.
One last question.
If everything is location-independent
and I can access all of the services from anywhere in the world,
why cannot others tap into some of these services,
even if they don't reside within Estonian borders?
Five years ago,
we launched a governmental start-up called e-Residency program
that for today joins tens of thousands of people.
These are businessmen and women from 136 different countries,
who establish their businesses digitally,
who do their banking online,
and who run their companies virtually over e-Estonia platform,
within European Union legal framework,
using an e-identity card similar to mine
and all of that from anywhere in the world.
The Estonian system is location-independent
and user-centric.
It prioritizes inclusiveness, openness and reliability.
It puts security and transparency at its center.
And the data into the hands of the rightful owner,
the person they refer to.
Don't take my word for it.
Try it.
Thank you.
(Applause)
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