It’s easy to get official letters from government agencies via a secure digital mailbox instead of physical mail. Here’s how to sign up.
Have you ever waited for an important piece of mail, wondering if and when it would show up? Or worse, it never showed up at all?
With identity fraud on the rise in Norway, it’s good to be concerned about privacy these days.
One of the things I've never liked about Norway is the practice of mailboxes being clustered together, often in a public area. This makes it super easy for someone to quickly look through multiple mailboxes in little more than a minute.
Why do I need a digital mailbox?
Digital mailboxes have become a popular way to receive communications from central, regional and local governments in recent years.
It's a secure solution to receive and store important correspondence digitally, such as letters with decisions, health information or other sensitive information.
Public agencies can't use regular e-mail to send such information because it is not safe enough. A digital mailbox is safe, and you can store your mail as long as you want.
For example, my Norwegian language exam results and citizenship application letter were both sent to my digital mailbox. Of course, the other benefit is speed! Norway's postal service is not fast, so with digital delivery you get such letters several days faster.
The two digital mailboxes
You have two options to set up a digital mailbox: Digipost from Posten, and e-Boks, owned 50/50 by Nets and PostNord. Which one you choose doesn't really matter. Both services are free of charge.
It's easy to set up either one using secure BankID authentication to identify yourself.
More than 10,000 public and private sector businesses use Digipost for digital postal services. It's not clear how many use e-Boks, but they are established across the Nordic region and claim more than 9 million people have signed up for their service. e-Boks seems to have some additional features such as…
Personally, I use Digipost from Posten. When I receive a letter to Digipost, I receive an SMS and an email notifying me. It's then simple to login via the Digipost app or via the website to read the letter.
How secure are digital mailboxes?
According to Digipost, “all documents you store are encrypted and are your personal property. Digipost does not have access to your mailbox and cannot share your content with anyone else.”
While at e-Boks: “we respect the privacy of our users. We never scan the contents of your mail, or other personal data. This means that your personal data will not be sold to third parties. Your mail will only be accessed and viewed by you.”
What’s the difference between these two mail boxes and “alt in” or whatever it’s called? I get emails there from the government. Not sure I understand the difference.
They are very different things. These digital mailboxes are exactly that, just a digital mailbox. They allow you to receive secure letters digitally that would otherwise have been sent in the post. Private companies can also send you mail using them. Altinn is basically how you interact with the Norwegian government online, fill in forms, submit changes, and all kinds of things. It’s only used by government agencies. The other key difference is that the digital mailboxes are entirely optional, whereas it’s very difficult to function in Norway without using Altinn to communicate with the government and its agencies. I hope this helps.