Riisalo told ERR Friday that while he has been using a so-called official @eesti.ee email address since they were introduced, it no longer makes economic sense to maintain the service.

"We are offering an email service and it is becoming more costly. A state-level service needs to be secure and operated based on the best possible standards. It simply isn't efficient as the service does not have enough users, with most people relying on private email services," Riisalo said.

The Estonian State Information System's Authority (RIA) has said it will be shutting down name.surname@eesti.ee email addresses or aliases from November 1. Email addresses where @eesti.ee is preceded by the person's personal identification code will be retained for the purposes of official communication, which messages will also be forwarded to people's personal email addresses.

Riisalo urged people to double check where their personal code-based addresses are forwarded to make sure they do not miss important notification from the state. "This can be changed by visiting Eesti.ee and logging in to one's personal account there," the minister added.

Asso Kasuk, project manager at RIA for inbox services, told ERR that just 1-2 percent of the official inbox service users rely on the name.surname@eesti.ee addresses and that it costs €50,000-100,000 annually to maintain the service.

The RIA spokesperson explained the decision to stop offering the service despite its relatively modest cost. "The main reason is that we are dealing with a legacy system the continued operation of which is not sensible. 95 percent of correspondence sent and received using name.surname@eesti.ee addresses is identifiable as spam, which is why Microsoft, Gmail and Yahoo spam filters often block it along with legitimate letters. Having been in contact with major email services providers, we have come to the conclusion that continued maintenance of the existing solution is not sustainable in terms of labor and expenses."

"The service closure will inconvenience those who have been using their name.surname@eesti.ee address for correspondence or to register for other services. We have notified users of the closure six months in advance and we once more urge everyone using the service as their primary contact address to update your contact information with their service providers to make sure you continue to receive important notifications, such as bills," Kasuk emphasized.

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