Malaysian Government Offers Free E-mail To All Citizens 189
jfruhlinger writes "Attempts to move governments to electronic communications often hit a serious snag: Governments must serve all citizens, and not all citizens have email addresses. Malaysia's solution to the problem: offer free email to every Malaysian adult. Citizens will be able to get their @myemail.my address by inserting a smartcard into a reader or presenting it in person." Would you trust your government to be your mail provider?
USPO (Score:1, Interesting)
If the Post Office had done this 10 years ago it might still have a chance of staying in business.
Re:What difference .... (Score:5, Interesting)
it wouldnt matter zit, whether government is your email provider or not. either way, they will spy on you.
Actually, a government department is less likely to spy on you because they have no economic incentive. All you need is privacy provision in the email act, and the chances become very slim. I've worked in government, and they like to do things by the book.
Re:What difference .... (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, nobody freaks out about the government being in charge of postal mail, and that's actively scanned by xray. And, there are always alternatives if you don't like it.
Actually, a government department is less likely to spy on you because they have no economic incentive. All you need is privacy provision in the email act, and the chances become very slim. I've worked in government, and they like to do things by the book.
Re:USPO (Score:4, Interesting)
I believe the USPS DID have a plan to set up "official" USPS e-mail addresses for people back in the 1990's.
I think it was the brilliant plan of charging people $0.15 per e-mail that did them in.
If they had just done a free service and charged advertisers (who provide the bulk of their revenue anyway) they could have preempted gmail, yahoo, hotmail...