BSW on digital affairs

The BSW wants a single online portal for all government services where citizens and companies enter their data only once. At the same time, the party rejects digital mandates that add burdens for small businesses and the self-employed.

The BSW wants one website for all government offices. People enter their data there only once. But small firms should not be forced to use digital procedures.

The portal is meant to be the central point of contact for citizens and businesses. According to the platform, this requires all agencies to review their processes and digitize them where it makes sense. It says Germany lags far behind other industrial countries in digital administration. As examples of mandates it rejects, the BSW names compulsory electronic invoicing and lengthy privacy notices that can trigger legal warnings.

The BSW rejects blanket data retention by the state and wants to ban the collection and storage of individual behavioral data. Encryption should remain freely usable and online tracking should be curbed. The party says this is meant to prevent total surveillance of citizens.

Companies and the state collect a lot of data about people. The BSW wants to ban collecting data on how people behave. The state should not read private messages. Everyone should be allowed to encrypt their data. Encrypting means only the receiver can read a message.

As examples of state surveillance plans, the platform names the chat control proposal debated in the EU and data retention, meaning the storage of connection data without specific suspicion. For companies, it points to a data incident at VW. Cryptographic methods should be usable without restriction, and the right to free information should apply. Anyone who refuses tracking in their browser settings should neither be tracked nor asked through cookie banners. Europe should build its own digital infrastructure.

The BSW wants to promote open-source software and freely available AI models and help public agencies switch to them. This is meant to reduce dependence on large US tech companies and save money in the long run.

Open-source software is software whose code anyone may look at. The BSW wants to support this kind of software. Public offices should use it instead of programs from big US companies. This should save money and protect data.

The platform points to federal framework contracts with international IT companies worth 13.8 billion euros, including 4.8 billion for Oracle and 1.3 billion for Microsoft. It says open source recently made up half a percent of federal software spending. Makers that withdraw a product from the market would have to publish the source code or release license codes. Infrastructure for open-access scientific publications and research data would be secured permanently.

The BSW wants a legal guarantee that people without a smartphone, computer or internet access can take part in public life. In the party's view, they should be neither excluded nor disadvantaged.

Some people have no smartphone and no internet. The BSW wants to protect them. They should still be able to take trains and get appointments. A law should secure this right.

Those affected should be able to use rail and local transit without paying extra and to receive their packages. Appointments at public offices, with doctors and with therapists should be available without digital channels. Public offices should not be reachable only through online forms and chatbots. The platform names age or a deliberate choice as reasons for going without digital devices.