SPD on digital affairs

The SPD wants to continue the subsidized fiber-optic rollout until all eligible connections are reached. The program sees fast internet as the basis for working from home, competitive businesses and attractive places to live.

The SPD wants fast internet everywhere. The state will keep building fiber-optic lines. Villages should get a connection too. This helps people who work from home, and it helps companies.

According to the program, about 2.9 billion euros in federal and state funding have been secured. Roughly half has already been spent on construction, giving just under 247,000 additional households a fiber connection. The rollout is to reach all households, businesses, public offices and schools that qualify under the federal funding program.

The SPD wants to make digital tools in the social sector usable for all generations while keeping non-digital services. In its view, data should neither make participation harder nor restrict access to benefits.

Digital tools can make daily life easier. The SPD wants everyone to be able to use them. There should be courses and local help for this. People who are not online should still get services without a computer.

The SPD relies on easily accessible services, digital education and local support tailored to each target group. Digitalization in the social sector is to respect social data confidentiality, meaning the protection of personal social data. Digital applications are meant to improve daily life, participation and care. No one is to be excluded by the shift.

The SPD wants to review the state data protection law and other rules to see whether the effort is in proportion to the benefit. Public agencies, associations and businesses are to be relieved while protection of personal data stays in place.

Data protection rules sometimes cause a lot of work. The SPD wants to check these rules. Offices, clubs and companies should have less work. Personal data should still stay protected.

The focus is especially on youth, social and health offices and their options for exchanging data with each other. The goal of the review is relief while keeping protection of personal data unchanged. Elsewhere the platform stresses that data belongs to citizens and not to the state.

The SPD wants to examine whether the state administration can switch its software to European vendors or open-source solutions. The state is to keep control over data and technology and depend less on global software corporations.

State offices use programs from big global companies. The SPD wants to check whether other programs could work. For example programs from Europe or open programs. Anyone may use and change open programs. This should save money and make the state more independent.

The review mainly concerns operating systems and office software; the platform expects possible substantial savings on license fees. Every purchase is to include a check of whether open-source solutions reduce dependencies and costs. Open standards are also meant to make it easier to reuse solutions. The SPD's stated goal is to reduce the market power of global software companies and strengthen the digital independence of Germany and the state.

The SPD wants to fully implement the Onlinezugangsgesetz (Online Access Act) so that dealings with government can be handled entirely online through one central account. The state and municipalities are to use shared IT systems and be protected by a joint shield against cyberattacks.

People and companies should be able to file requests fully online. There will be one central account for this. You only have to enter your data once. Offices should be better protected from online attacks. Paper services will also remain.

Online services are to be user-friendly and accessible and follow the once-only principle, under which agencies share data that has been entered once. The administration is to get a uniform digital workplace with email, calendar, document management, chat and video conferencing. Also planned are a statewide data strategy with open interfaces, a digital check of legislation, and fewer paper requirements. Money from the MV investment plan is to go to digital infrastructure, modernizing the administration and cybersecurity. Municipalities are to get help digitizing their services without giving up in-person and paper options entirely.

In the coming term, the SPD wants a review of which standardizable administrative processes artificial intelligence can support or partly automate. Decisions that affect fundamental rights are not to be handed over to AI in automated form.

Artificial intelligence can help offices with simple tasks. The SPD wants to check where that works. Staff should then have more time for advice. People will still make important decisions about people. A machine may not do that alone.

The review is to cover all departments of the state government. The goals are less routine work for staff, faster procedures, better availability and more targeted use of personnel, also in view of demographic change. Possible uses named in the platform include file research, incoming mail, citizen inquiries, translations, checking funding applications and meeting minutes. The conditions are data protection, IT security, traceable procedures, training, involvement of staff representatives, legal oversight and a final decision by humans.

The SPD wants to better protect the state's digital infrastructure against cyberattacks and strengthen data protection in public administration. According to the platform, people who use digital government services should be able to rely on their data being safe.

The SPD wants to protect government computers and data better. Attacks from the internet should do less harm. All agencies should follow fixed safety rules. A state expert team should help when attacks happen.

The platform treats data protection and IT security as a task of the state and the protection of digital infrastructure as part of public safety. It plans more expertise, stronger oversight and more awareness-raising. Mandatory minimum standards are to keep applying to all agencies. A state CERT, meaning a computer emergency response team, is to help municipalities and state agencies prevent, detect and handle attacks.

The SPD wants many dealings with public offices to be possible online, while leaving more time for personal advice on site. The solutions are to be developed together with the municipalities.

The SPD wants more government services on the internet. Many trips to an office should no longer be needed. People should still get advice in person. The state wants to work with towns and cities on this.

The plan includes digital service portals, citizens' offices as digital contact points and clearly structured procedures. In the platform's view, this relieves the administration and gives staff more room for advice and decisions. Cooperation with the municipalities is to remain close.