Insights > E-GOVERNMENT A-Z – Digital Austria

Key technologies

Key elements of e-government in Austria have included digital projects such as the Citizen Card – later developed into ID Austria – which serves as an electronic form of ID on the Internet. Digitally interlinked official services – online procedures such as electronic payments and electronic document delivery – only became possible once the Citizen Card enabled people to identify themselves online. Thanks to this method of unique identification and authentication using the Citizen Card, applications and contracts can be signed which would otherwise require a hand-written signature. In technical terms, this is implemented by having a free form of e-government, based on open-source modules incorporated in the relevant applications. This enables signatures to be checked electronically and documents to be both signed and delivered electronically.