Berlin In the corona pandemic, the Federal Employment Agency (BA) reached its limits. 60,000 employees answered customer inquiries from the home office, up to 200,000 calls reached the employment agencies and job centers every day. The telephony platform failed, the employees had to make calls via the outdated Skype system.
Well-known services such as Microsoft Teams could have provided valuable help at the time to maintain communication. But the federal agency is not allowed to use them. Because the data migrates to the cloud, to a network of servers that are not only located in Germany, but also in America, for example.
However, because there is currently no valid data protection agreement between the EU and the USA, the services for public administration are taboo. This also applies to so-called voicebots, which automatically process telephone customer inquiries, or interpreter applications that could help with the care of Ukrainian refugees.
For BA boss Andrea Nahles, this is an intolerable situation. Politicians are calling for the digitization of administration – and with 70 online services, the employment agency is exemplary, she said recently at an event in Berlin. But at the same time, the authorities are denied the use of services that have long been part of everyday life for their customers.
“The technology is there, the time is ripe, but we mustn’t,” complained Nahles. But if the citizens had the feeling that they had to go on a journey through time when they came into contact with the administration, then at some point it would become an issue of democracy.
But the basic problem has not been solved: “Should European or German authorities use US services such as MS Teams, the data of European and German citizens must be adequately protected against access by the US authorities,” explains the FDP digital politician Maximilian Funke-Kaiser .
“The technology is there, the time is ripe, but we mustn’t.”
(Photo: IMAGO/Political Moments)
From the point of view of the Federal Data Protection Officer Ulrich Kelber, however, this has not yet been guaranteed. According to Kelber’s spokesman, data protection officials from the federal and state governments had just come to the conclusion in a report that Microsoft still failed to provide evidence that its services could be “used in accordance with the law”.
After the failed predecessors “Safe Harbor” and “Privacy Shield”, a new transatlantic data protection agreement is currently being negotiated at European level, which is intended to certify that the USA complies with the strict European standards. But so far without success.
The federal government must put pressure on here, but also expand cloud offers at federal level and provide practicable framework agreements for the use of cloud services, demanded Nahles. The director of the German Pension Insurance Association (DRV), Stephan Fasshauer, sees it similarly. Although people in Germany are fantastic at writing concepts, they can’t implement them, he said at the event with Nahles.
Pension insurance could also benefit from the support of cloud services, because demographics are increasing the number of their customers and at the same time reducing their employees. Voicebots, which initially process requests automatically, would also be helpful here.
BA and DRV have therefore forged a “coalition of the willing” to wake up politicians and put pressure on them. Because time is running out. In the case of standard applications such as Skype, which the employment agency is currently still using, the manufacturer will soon stop maintaining it, explains BA digital boss Markus Schmitz. You either have to try to keep them running with on-board resources or switch to cloud services.
Microsoft is further owed the proof that its services are “legally usable”.
(Photo: IMAGO/photothek)
So that it can get started immediately when the legislator gives the go-ahead, the federal agency is already experimenting in test laboratories with cloud providers such as Microsoft, Telekom and the Schwarz Group, which includes the grocery chains Lidl and Kaufland. The retailer has set up its own cloud for its branch network, which customers or suppliers can also use if they wish.
>> Read here: Schwarz Group: That’s why the Lidl parent company sells software against hackers
However, the BA would probably be a size too big for the black cloud. Nevertheless, the digital policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Jens Zimmermann, would like more support for such projects. Because it is essential for Germany’s digital sovereignty not to be dependent on so-called hyperscalers, i.e. individual large providers such as Microsoft or Amazon, for the administration cloud.
In Germany, the software group SAP is currently working with the Bertelsmann service provider Arvato Systems to set up a cloud platform for ministries and authorities, which is expected to be available from 2024. The consortium promises to protect the data well from unauthorized access, among other things by handling all processes in Germany.
>> Read here: SAP at annual high: How much potential does the software manufacturer still have?
The BA boss encouraged the industry to continue investing in such solutions and also to believe in public administration as the customers of tomorrow. Nahles does not see the risk of misuse of sensitive data.
Because the authority would, if it were allowed to, move its online portal or its internal communication to a trustworthy cloud. The financial system or sensitive customer information, on the other hand, remain in a separate network. The BA is thus following the so-called multi-cloud strategy, which the SPD, Greens and FDP also agreed in their coalition agreement.
The parliamentary manager of the FDP parliamentary group, Johannes Vogel, who himself once worked for the BA, also demands speed here. Germany’s administration must finally become more digital and the citizens should also notice this in everyday life. “It’s good that we’re all happy that cars can now be registered digitally,” said Vogel. “But it also shows the low standard we come from.”
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