eco – Association of the Internet Industry views the decision of the German political parties, CDU, CSU and SPD, as a positive contribution to the successful digitalisation of Germany. Oliver Süme, Chair of the eco Board, comments: ‘The future coalition partners must also address structural challenges.’

As digital policy evolves in 2025, the intersection of innovation and regulation poses both challenges and opportunities for businesses. Explore how technologies like AI are revolutionising business operations, while robust digital infrastructure is empowering SMEs and ensuring Europe’s digital sovereignty. Part II of our issue on Digital Policy & Regulation offers expert insights and advice on navigating these transformative changes!

The development of powerful large language models (LLMs) places high demands on computing capacity and energy efficiency. While leading global technology companies rely on their own supercomputers and specialised data centres, Europe must expand its strategic capacities in High-Performance Computing (HPC) in order to keep up with global competition.

On the occasion of yesterday's Germany's parliamentary elections, Oliver Süme, Chair of the Board at eco Association, is calling for clear structures and responsibilities for a Ministry of Digitalisation 2.0 in the new government. The upcoming legislative period must be guided by the motto: Less regulation – more innovation.

On Tuesday, 19 February 2025, the first meeting of the German Energy Board of the Data Institute took place. As a member of the board, eco’s Managing Director Alexander Rabe is overseeing the energy use case.

How can data centres (DC) be optimally planned and operated? What role does water cooling play and how does the German Energy Efficiency Act (EnEfG) affect the industry? In this interview, Peter auf dem Graben, Senior Data Centre Consultant at dc-ce DC-Beratung and expert in data centre planning and operation, explains why precise coordination between IT and facility management is crucial, which technologies drive energy efficiency and how operators should respond to increasing power densities.

Together with 192 other organisations, including Mozilla, Proton, WhatsApp and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), eco Association has signed an open letter to the British Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper.

Dr Judith Puttkammer joined the Advisory Board of the eco Competence Group Mobility in December 2024. In this interview, the expert on data spaces for mobility data talks about the importance of sovereign data spaces, regulatory priorities and the role of innovative technologies. She also provides insights into how she would like to contribute to the work of the competence group with her experience as Deputy Head of Mobility Data Space at acatech and what impetus she hopes to provide for the mobility policy of the future.

The last week of sessions of the 20th German Bundestag is over, the election is in 10 days – and many digital policy projects remain unfinished. At our German Internet Policy Party Check on Tuesday evening, it also became clear that there is a great need for action in digital policy across party lines. eco has published an agenda with ten key demands for a fresh start in digital policy.

At the AI Action Summit 2025 in Paris, global stakeholders from business and politics gathered to discuss the future of artificial intelligence. eco Managing Director Andreas Weiss assesses Europe’s role in this dynamic, between innovation and regulation.

The eco Association is accompanying the election with content - both with papers and digital policy demands from the Internet industry and in direct exchange with digital policy makers.

The last German Bundestag session of the 20th legislative period has come to an end – and elections will take place in just over a week. eco points out that numerous regulatory initiative relevant to the Internet industry have not been completed, partly due to the collapse of the German traffic light coalition. The eco Association calls for the new government to address the necessary legal clarifications for businesses as quickly as possible after the election.

Media literacy is the key to a strong democracy. That’s why hundreds of institutions across Germany are participating in this year’s Safer Internet Day, on the topic of “No Likes for Lies!”

Imagine a seamless journey from Budapest to Madrid in a fully autonomous car. The car navigates every twist and turn, adjusts its speed to traffic and makes real-time decisions, all powered by continuous data processing from a network of cloud and edge providers. This vision of intelligent, cross-border digital infrastructure...

How can the technical requirements of the NIS2 regulation be implemented? This question will be the focus of discussion among eco members at the next regular meeting of the KRITIS Competence Group – scheduled on 13 February 2025 at the DE-CIX Meeting Center in Frankfurt. Ulrich Plate, Head of the KRITIS CG, will present the status of ENISA’s “Implementing Guide” at this event. You can now gain insights from our brief interview with him.

This year, the eco Complaints Office is once again taking part in Safer Internet Day. Together with experts from the LPS North Rhine-Westphalia and the Cologne police force, the Complaints Office is organising a seminar on the topic of nude images.

In just around three weeks before the German Bundestag election, eco Association has analysed the election programmes of several parties from a digital policy perspective. The assessment by the Association highlights central topics such as the digitalisation of society and the economy, the expansion of digital infrastructures, and the handling of data and artificial intelligence.

This year’s Safer Internet Day (SID) is themed “No Likes for Lies.” New this year: In addition to SID, an entire action month will take place in February. eco is participating with two webinars.

1st February marks the annual Change Your Password Day – an important occasion to draw attention to the growing threat posed by insecure passwords and digital attacks. eco offers 5 tips.

From 2 February 2025, the AI Act will prohibit manipulation by AI, social scoring and remote biometric identification in real time – a decisive step for ethics and consumer protection. The EU is thus sending a clear signal in favour of a uniform legal framework based on ethics, diversity and data security. However, the...

dotmagazine is the online international magazine covering Internet industry topics. It features exciting articles from members & partners and covers the entire spectrum of the Internet industry. In this dotmagazine issue, discover how digital future depends on visionary policies, innovation, and global collaboration to create a secure, sustainable, and inclusive ecosystem.

eco sharply criticizes the extensive surveillance demands of the CDU/CSU. In response to today’s government statement by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Union is calling for aspects such as data retention.

In the digital age, data protection is more important than ever. However, a recent eco survey conducted among 2,500 German citizens in the European Data Protection Day shows that, in Germany, the majority of citizens (52.4%) consider data protection to be too complicated.

From the eco Association perspective, the political structures and frameworks for digitalisation in Germany are inadequate. In the Internet Policy Agenda, eco calls for a fundamental restructuring of digital policy decision-making processes and procedures.

The global race for dominance in artificial intelligence is in full swing, and Europe, along with Germany, must act decisively to remain competitive. A robust data centre infrastructure is crucial for Europe’s independence and strategic ability to act.

In this interview, experienced security expert Nico Leidecker from NVISO explains the advantages of ethical hacking and the aspects to watch out for.

eco Chair of the Board Oliver Süme's statement on the inauguration of the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump, on 20 January 2024.

The launch of the German electronic patient record (ePA) is an important step toward further digitalisation of the healthcare system. Prof. Norbert Pohlmann, eco Board Member for IT Security, provides an assessment.

Dr. Béla Waldhauser, Spokesperson for the eco Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, advocates for the construction of data centres in Frankfurt and other metropolitan areas. According to the Alliance Spokesperson, digital technologies are the key to the sustainable transformation of cities and municipalities.

On 23 February 2025, Germany is facing a pivotal federal election. But what role does digital policy play in this election and the subsequent coalition negotiations? eco Managing Director Alexander commented on this in the German “Süddeutsche Zeitung” dossier.