Estonia’s digital society

Estonia has a very developed digital society. It’s truly ahead of many other countries in
this questions. Does it only have a positive effect, and are there any ethical considera -
tions?

In my own opinion, development of digital society in a country is crucial. First of all, it

allows more people the access to several systems. In Estonia 99% of Public Services
are available online 24/7. Bank account, healthcare records and a lot more can be ac -
cessed digitally. Besides, Estonian citizens are able to vote and pay their taxes online.
To spread digital systems in the whole country, Estonian government invested money
in connecting their citizens to the Internet. Thus, digital world, apart from other bene -
fits, promotes financial inclusion, as to gives opportunity to people in even small areas
of the country access their finances.

Another benefit is E-residency and Digital Nomad programs in Estonia. They allow
people, who don’t own citizenship of Estonia, open their business in this country. By
doing this, Estonia attracts a lot of skill workers to their country. This is beneficial for
Estonia’s economy, especially considering a small size of the country and a small num -
ber of its own citizens.

I think Estonian digital society is well-developed also because of changes in education.

All schools are equipped with computers, and children learn to program from the age of
7. Estonian government also launched free computer courses for some adults.

However, there are always 2 sides of a medal, and Estonian digital society has its own
problems. First of all, it’s the fact that almost all the data is stored digitally, and some
people may access it. Massive cyberattacks were launched in Estonia in 2007. Even
this event has its own positive sides though. Cybersecurity has significantly increased
since then, and other countries, whose digital systems are less developed, can learn
from Estonia’s experience. However, it’s possible that Estonia will be one of the first
countries to deal with further, improved massive cyberattacks, and people’s data will
be compromised. Nowadays, when AI is easily used by many people, this might be
concerning.

Another problem that may arise is surveillance. By digitalizing all the systems in a
country, it’s easier to monitor people. It’s not concerning when it’s only used for safety
reasons, but it becomes a serious problem, when this power is overused.

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To conclude, I think that the development of digital society has more benefits than neg -
ative sides. It pushes technological progress further and gives access to many people in
all areas and of all ages to the financial, healthcare and other systems online. I believe
that Estonia’s example its good, and other countries should also learn from it. Some of
them already did, actually. Croatia, for example, has launched the Digital Nomad pro -
gram as well. But it should be also taken into account, that only developed countries
are ready to become digital. Some systems might be taken by underdeveloped countries
in order to improve some life aspects, but full digitalization of citizen’s data is almost
impossible in such countries, because the economical and often political issues are the
ones which need to be solved first.