Around 22 percent of Czechs currently use a data box, which is approximately seven percentage points more than in the middle of last year. This is according to an Ipsos survey of 800 adult respondents in August.
More than half of Czechs (54 percent) have never visited the Citizen Portal service, which acts as a signpost for the state’s digital services. 53% of people are unsure where to look for information on available digital services.
Although the data shows that Czechs do not use digitalization of administrative tasks on a large scale, this does not mean that they are not interested in electronic communication with the authorities. Fifty-five percent think the state doesn’t give them enough opportunities to handle their tasks digitally.
“Digital services of the state and public institutions can save us a lot of time. However, there are still many people who do not know what they can do digitally. This is although they otherwise routinely use online banking or shop in e-shops. I think that if we could improve awareness of the possibilities of digital communication with public administration, the demand for electronic services would be even higher,” said Vladimír Přech, director of the commercial law section of the technology firm Gordic.
According to Přech, the situation in the use of data boxes should change next year when the Interior Ministry starts setting them up automatically when using bank identities. According to the survey, this should increase the number of Czechs using data boxes, given that around 54 percent of citizens now use digital identities to communicate with the public administration.