OECD Peer Review of E-Government in Denmark - ePractice.eu

The CRS encompasses a number of registers:
• The Civil Register: this contains current information about each citizen including personal
identity number, address, name, civil status and citizenship.
• The Road System Register: this contains current information on all Danish roads. Each road
is assigned a road code and a name, and the register also contains information about its
administrative relationship (parishes, postal districts and voting districts).
• The Housing Register: this contains the addresses of all Danish dwellings and is used where
it is necessary or practical to access the CRS using an address rather than a name, and to
determine whether people are moving to an “approved” dwelling (in terms of various
government policies and services).
• The Register of Authorities: this is the index of all public authorities that deal with the CRS.
The register lists each authority’s address, telephone number and facsimile number, along
with administrative information such as authorities’ place in the public sector in relation to
courts, counties and police districts.
Individuals’ CRS file contains their identification number, name, address, marital status, place of
birth, citizenship, kinship, declaration of any incapacity, profession, membership of the Lutheran
Church of Denmark, voting rights, municipal circumstances, registration notes and, eventually, death.
When name, address, civil status and citizenship are updated the old data remains in the CRS as
historical data. Each identity number is unique, and thus functions as individual identification. The
entire public sector uses the identification number for administrative purposes. It is also used for a
variety of reasons by the private sector under tightly proscribed arrangements. Citizens can request
that their information be confidential, and available only to public institutions and creditors.
Two pieces of legislation regulate the operation of the CRS: The Act on Processing of Personal
Data 2000 and the Danish Act on the Civil Registration System 2000. The latter law enhanced private
sector access to the CRS, allowing private actors to obtain information on individuals that has been
made public under data processing legislation without advance permission from the Danish Data
Protection Agency.
In interviews, officials often mentioned the CRS as a core piece of the e-government environment
that provides a significant advantage in development of more user-focused services. Aside from its
functionality, the long-standing existence of the CRS has brought two major benefits. First, it has to
some degree preconditioned public servants for the introduction of e-government by getting them used
to relying on common stores of data that have been developed on the basis of a “collect once, use
many times” principle. Second, it has enabled Danes to develop high levels of experience and trust in
government’s ability to collect, store and use their personal information without compromising their
privacy, and readied them for the wider introduction of administrative data sharing in support of
e-government.
Public Key Infrastructure
Some OECD countries have chosen to rely upon a public key infrastructure (PKI) as the means
by which they will: 1) secure the transmission of electronic information between citizens, businesses
and government organisations; and 2) verify the identity of people (i.e. authenticate) who are
providing and/or using electronic government information or services. Public key technology is
currently the strongest form of information security technology being put into general service in either
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