In this digital age, it seems that everyone has at least twenty ways that they can be contacted. The U.S. government requires us all to have a physical address where we can receive mail. But, why not have an electronic address registered as well? What if we are out of the country and can’t get our mail? Or what if we just prefer electonic mediums as a backup for important corresponpondances.
One issue I have with the internet is that governments seem to be decades behind the eight ball in regulating what is going on. There is so much cyber hacking, pornography, spam, and other bad stuff going on. Our government is always there to tax us, but do they protect us as well? Not so much, at least not in 2016 on the internet.
There could be an official separate folder in all email accounts where government or official mail such as bills could come which would be spam free. Additionally, the government could take a closer look at the spam that is coming in and try to determine what is legitimate and what is not. We use opt-in lists, but I still get spammed every day in my gmail account. I thought gmail knew how to filter this stuff out. Maybe not! Or maybe I need to mark more of it as spam so they’ll get a hint.
One day the government will catch up and one day the internet might be the primary form of corresondance. If you have five email accounts, you’ll have to register one with the government and keep that one. But, there’s a great advantage here. If you move, you need to change your physical address. But, what if you could keep your email address for life? Maybe that is not such a bad idea especially if the address could be queriable in government records so your old friends could look you up. Currently, Facebook serves that niche, but what if uncle Sam could?