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Estonia’s digital ID system offers many lessons for the U.S. – Source fastcompany.com

In three decades since regaining independence from the Soviet Union, Estonia has taken government from “click here” to one-click to, in some cases, zero-click operation. Citizens can file their national taxes online in minutes, zip through signing up for services without dealing with paper forms, and even vote online thanks to digital identities created for them within minutes of their birth.

But while this experiment in digital citizenship offers useful lessons for larger countries than this Baltic state of 1.3 million, one of the biggest may be: Don’t try this at home.

Estonian officials made two points over and over during a press trip to their country that I took in mid-August, with the country’s government covering most of the cost: This e-government journey made sense for a nation of its size, but bigger and more complex countries should not assume they could take the same path. Or as President Kersti Kaljulaid said in one meeting with participants: “Copy nobody in…

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Source : fastcompany.com

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