Internet has radically changed our approach to everyday life, to the point of revolutionizing the little things we usually do every day. Entertainment, work and even communication: much of what surrounds us now passes from being connected, thanks also to the thrust of the other great revolution carried out in the last decade by mobile and smartphones in particular. In a context in which the Internet has therefore assumed a central role, the need was felt to further simplify the relationship between citizens – or better users – businesses and the Public Administration , exploiting precisely the digital interaction and instant and simplified access to data and information.
This is how the terms of digital citizenship , digital rights and digital society were born, expressions that flourished since the 1980s but perfected in the last decade under the pressure of the technological revolution. We can define digital citizenship as the set of rights and duties that provide for a simplification of the relationship between citizens, businesses and the Public Administration, all through the use of digital technologies . It is therefore not a concept that replaces traditional citizenship, but an extension of it, considering that every individual has the right to participate in the online society , behaving in the same way as what happens in “real company” or physical and thus becoming a center of indictment of rights and duties , such as those relating to the use of digital administration services.
Even the political debate has not remained to look at the progress of the digital revolution and in recent days the news of the proposal, put forward by the EU Commission, of a Declaration on the rights and principles that will have to guide the digital transformation in the European Union. However, returning to a more national perspective, the regulatory reference that accompanied the modernization process of the Public Administration is set out in Legislative Decree no. 82 of 2005, which introduced the so-called Digital Administration Code (CAD) , a real corpus that aims to regulate the use of digital technologies in the exercise of institutional activity and establishing the right of citizens and businesses to interface with the Public Administration through digital tools. Correspondingly, the DAC establishes the duty of public administrations to equip themselves with the digital tools and technologies necessary to allow citizens the correct exercise of digital rights .
Over the years, the matter has undergone various tweaks, including through changes arranged with the latest Simplification Decrees. The Administration Code has reached its sixth version with which it was decided to strengthen the existing digital tools and to introduce new ones. The innovation brought about by legislative decree no. 217 of 2017, which introduced in Chapter I of the DAC, dedicated to the General Principles, the so-called “ Digital Citizenship Charter “, specifying the digital rights that businesses and citizens boast from the Public Administration.
The digital rights reported by the CAD include:
- Right to use of technologies , which allows anyone to use digital tools in an accessible and effective way in relations with administrations, regardless of the speed or modernity of the device in possession. Basically, everyone must be able to use the sites and apps of the Public Administration, without discrimination in the use of technologies;
- Right to digital identity , among the most immediate in understanding given the growing popularity and spread of the SPID , the Electronic Identity Card (CIE) and the National Card of Services (CNS), provided for and recognized by the CAD. Correspondingly, the Simplifications Decree of 2020 indicated on February 28, 2021 the switch-off of the different identification methods to be able to access the online services of the PA;
- Among the new tools introduced in recent years there is the Digital Domicile , a right of digital citizenship that allows you to choose your own digital domicile (certified or qualified e-mail address, activated upon possession of a PEC, an equivalent address or SPID digital identity) from which to receive communications on the electronic side of the PA. If companies and professionals required to register in special special registers (think, for example, of lawyers) are obliged to have a digital domicile, for the private sector we still speak of faculty;
- It also includes the obligation of PAs and public service managers to accept payments with IT methods through the pagoPA platform;
- Right of telematic access to data, information and documents;
- Right to know the situation relating to one's requests online; i
- Right to digital administration;
- Right to digital participation , which citizens exercise through the use of popular participation and consultation tools. For example, the possibility of using electronic signatures and SPIDs for abrogative referendum has recently been introduced;
- The indication of the art. 8 relating to the computer literacy of citizens : the State and individuals must promote initiatives aimed at fostering digital culture among citizens, especially taking into consideration minors and categories at risk of exclusion, so to encourage the development of legal IT skills and use the digital services of the PA;
- Connectivity to the Internet at public offices and other places public, with particular reference to the school, health and tourist sectors.
In case of violation of digital rights , users can contact the Digital Ombudsman established in art. 17 paragraph 1 quater of the DAC, which performs a support function for citizens and businesses in order to make effective the exercise of digital citizenship rights . The office of the Ombudsman is set up at the AgID and does not resolve or mediate disputes between citizen and PA, just as it does not replace the PA in carrying out the activity requested by the citizen; in the same way, it does not provide assistance in resolving malfunctions and nor does it replace administrations in relations with the public.
The Ombudsman then receives reports of alleged CAD violations by PA, public service managers and publicly controlled companies and, after having examined and classified them on the basis of membership (use of technologies; digital identity; digital domicile; payments using IT methods; communication using information technologies), evaluates the adequacy and, if the report is justified, invites the defaulting party to remedy it promptly, publishing the related decision online. The responsible administration will have 30 days from the reminder to comply, otherwise the Ombudsman will report the breach to the competent Office for the activation of disciplinary proceedings.
