6. Payments and Privacy

The strategy further explains: “Citizens will use the Internet for all applications and notifications to the public sector, namely, a moving notification; the enrolment of a child in a nursery; or when issuing a new passport. In addition, all citizens and businesses will automatically be given a free digital mailbox to which all communications from the public sector will be sent. The transition will take place gradually, as user-friendly eGovernment solutions are introduced in increasingly more areas. Help will be available for citizens who find it hard to use the new solutions. By 2015, the Government expects to be able to send 80 % of all correspondence to citizens in digital form. It is also expected that 80 % of all applications and correspondence from citizens will be in digital form.”

Source: http://​www.​epractice.​eu/​en/​document/​288205

Details of the Danish e-government strategy from 2011 to 2015 (subtitled the “digital path to future welfare”) are available online: http://​www.​digst.​dk/​da/​Servicemenu/​English/​Policy-and-Strategy/​~/​media/​Digitaliseringss​trategi/​Engelsk_​strategi_​tilgaengelig.​ashx

In May 2012 CICB and Rogers announced a joint initiative for the country’s first integrative mobile payment solution to be rolled out in a pilot basis. Details of this initiative are available online: http://​www.​newswire.​ca/​en/​story/​974935/​cibc-and-rogers-unveil-the-future-of-mobile-payments-in-canada

Separately, in early 2013 RIM announced an agreement with VISA for a similarly inspired mobile payment platform involving Blackberry devices. Such examples are indicative of a growing movement that can be expected to accelerate in the coming years.

CIBC reported in 2012, for instance, faster growth in year one of mobile banking (in 2011) than in the initial year of online banking offerings during the 1990s.

“Envision a digital wallet platform in which credit card, debit card, banking and other information becomes part of the smartphone itself, enabling consumers to make point-of-sale purchases. For example, ‘contactless’ or ‘tap-and-go’ systems using near-field communication (NFC), now popular on specialty cards at some retailers, will let customers pay by waving their phone in front of a point-of-sale terminal. Transactions can also be completed by short message service (SMS) or by quick response, or QR, codes.” Source: http://​www.​theglobeandmail.​com/​globe-investor/​personal-finance/​financial-road-map/​digital-wallet-slow-to-gain-acceptance/​article2414790/​?​from=​sec501

Firstly, the 2012 federal budget speech included a pledge to explore the widespread adoption of “tele-presence” videoconferencing technologies as a basis for reduced travel and reliance on face-to-face meetings: thus an austerity-driven IT investment. Secondly, 2011 saw the creation of a new internal entity, Shared Services Canada (SSC), mandated to refurbish the internal digital infrastructure for the government as a whole—and such transfer elements of previously separate systems across departments and agencies into a single, centrally coordinated and shared model. The expectation is that SSC could eventually lead to the publication of a formal government strategy on cloud computing—of the sort that we see adopted by many other countries including the US and Canadian Westminster cousins, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. SSC and the Government of Canada’s digital priorities are further discussed in Chap.​ 8.

Indeed, such an orientation is consistent with policies emphasizing greater competition and open investment domestically and internationally coupled with an austerity-driven fiscal stance imposing constraints on governmental programs and actions.

This somewhat sweeping characterization would apply unevenly across the aforementioned countries but certainly applies to the Canadian scene for reasons discussed and in contrast to Scandinavian countries consistently rated by bodies such as the UN as global leaders in public sector digital deployment and societal connectivity and mobile devices.

“The Digital Self” is the title of a 2011 book by Canadian journalist Nora Young (2012).

In August 2012 Facebook and the US Government announced a settlement pertaining to the company’s privacy policies and practices—featuring two decades of government-led audits and a commitment by the company to garner explicit approval from users before any subsequent changes to what sort of information on the social media site is made available publicly or otherwise shared.