The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been in force in Europe for four years. However, there is still uncertainty about its interpretation and implementation. eco – Association of the Internet Industry calls for a uniform application of the GDPR that not only creates legal clarity and the necessary scope for development and innovation but also makes it easier for Internet users to handle.

How secure are our devices when they connect to the Internet? This is difficult for consumers to discern. The IT security label of the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) now provides a solution. The eco Association welcomes this initiative and at the same time appeals to manufacturers and consumers to take responsibility for IT security.

The European Commission has proposed new legislation to “prevent and combat child sexual abuse”, with which it plans to have extensive search and monitoring obligations, Internet blocking and chat controls implemented. From the perspective of eco, the planned regulation fails to take into account the legitimate fight against illegal Internet content.

The Digital Ministers of the G7 countries are now meeting in Dusseldorf, with the protection of digital infrastructure and cybersecurity being key focal points due to the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine. In a guidelines paper, eco defines how these topics can be strengthened in a sustainable manner.

In recent times, the topDNS initiative has been a key factor which has enabled eco to apply a special weight to meeting the goal of protecting the “telephone book of the Internet”. The EU Commission has also just published a Study on Domain Name System (DNS) Abuse, which eco regards as having very good insights - but also some flaws.  

What contribution does digitalisation make to smart and safe buildings? Jens Möller, Head of Business Development at e-shelter security GmbH, talks about this in an interview.

Dr. Béla Waldhauser, spokesperson for the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, founded under the umbrella of eco – Association of the Internet Industry, is a new member of the Board of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact, a European self-regulatory initiative under whose umbrella leading data centre operators and associations joined forces last year.

This course will discuss the best practices in handling DNS abuse and various tools to identify such abuses related to DNS. The course also covers how law enforcement authorities can engage with ICANN. The target audience for this training are Law Enforcement personnel who are involved in handling abuses related to Internet...

An interview with Christopher Schmelter, Managing Director at adesso as a service GmbH.

IT service providers and data centres are enablers of digitalisation in SMEs, says Matthias Blatz, Managing Director of Heidelberg iT. In this interview, he answers questions about the resulting trust and IT security requirements.

On 9 and 10 May 2022, registries, registrars, resellers, service providers and investors from the domain industry will come together in Stockholm for the Nordic Domain Days 2022. The eco initiative topDNS is a partner of the conference and is involved in the programme in several respects.

The German Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) has ruled that the Bavarian Law on the Protection of the Constitution is in large parts not compatible with the German constitution. This applies, among other issues, to the provisions contained therein on online state searches, the tracking of mobile phone terminals, data transmission and blanket data retention.

Again, 2021 was an exceptional year for the domain industry. Marco Hoffmann (InterNetX) and Christian Voss (Sedo) will present a holistic review of the developments on the domain markets and illustrate exclusive data insights that you would otherwise never get to hear.

At the age of 15, ten times fewer girls than boys consider taking up a technical profession. In order to counteract this imbalance, to provide impetus to the debate, and to offer recommendations for companies, policymakers, educators and parents, eco - Association of the Internet Industry has published a white paper entitled: "Girls in Tech: A Call to Action" for Girls' Day on 28 April.

Commenting on today’s ECJ judgment which announces that Article 17 of the Copyright Directive is compatible with Union law and which overrules Poland’s complaint, eco Chair of the Board Oliver Süme states that the judgment sends out a bad signal for online freedom of expression.

In Germany, a large proportion of the population is very dissatisfied with the slow progress of digitalisation in many fields. As much as a quarter of those surveyed said that the topic of digital policy would have a major influence on their voting decision in the next federal state elections.

What disruptive potential do digital ecosystems offer? This is a topic covered in this short eco interview with the gridscale CEO Henrik Hasenkamp. At the Data Center Expert Summit in Darmstadt on 9 June, he will talk in detail through the role that cloud-based IT infrastructures play on this path.

In an advance interview, Marcus Busch talks about why Germany and Europe are on the right path towards digital sovereignty and strong cybersecurity and where the German federal government still needs to make adjustments.

We launched a new website for the Car Repair 4.0 project in English. Readers can expect a varied range of articles on topics such as artificial intelligence, Gaia-X, workshop service and much more. The Car Repair 4.0 project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK), is researching...

At the meeting of the Mobility Competence Group on “Sustainable Mobility: Innovative solutions, new business models, smart projects”, eco joined the discussion on sustainable mobility solutions with various experts from the mobility sector. In the process, a clear picture emerged of what is necessary to make mobility more sustainable and realise the transport turnaround with increased use of digitalisation.

How can the Internet industry implement climate targets in a timely manner? This is a subject we talked about with Severin Braun, CIO of PlusServer GmbH, who will be a member of the “Sustainability Goals 2027/30” panel at the Data Center Expert Summit on 8-9 June 2022.

Svenja Hahn is a Member of the European Parliament for the FDP and part of the Renew Europe Group. In an interview with eco, she talks about the challenges of regulating artificial intelligence, the goals of the AI Act and her Digital Single Market working group. What challenges does the EU face in integrating artificial...

At the Internet Policy Forum on 26 April in Berlin, we will discuss how the ‘digital policy awakening’ can succeed with the German Federal Minister of Education Bettina Stark-Watzinger, SPD Chair Saskia Esken, Dr Markus Richter, State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of the Interior and CIO Bund. In an interview, eco Chair Oliver Süme talks in advance about top digital policy issues and how digitalisation helps to overcome global crises.

Our world is facing significant challenges. As players in the Internet industry, we are part of the solution. eco’s Managing Director Alexander Rabe how member companies can get involved in the campaign “We are part of the solution – the Internet Industry”, which focuses on the positive sides of digitalisation.

Today, Tuesday, the Complaints Office of eco –Association of the Internet Industry is presenting its annual report for the year 2021, where a new high of notified legal violations on the Internet has been recorded.

Pay-per-use models and hardware and software as a service accelerate digital transformation – and strengthen companies in global competition. Founder Martin Gruber talks about how this can be achieved with the help of the Findustrial platform in an eco member interview.

Since 1 October 2021, the Fair Consumer Contracts Act has been entering into force step-by-step in Germany. eco Association, in cooperation with the law firms Fieldfisher and Rickert.Law, has now published a paper summarising the industry’s obligations.

In July 2020, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) overturned the EU-US Privacy Shield agreement. Now the European Union (EU) and the US have agreed on a new agreement that will regulate how personal data can be shared with US digital companies. EuroCloud board member Dr. Jens Eckhardt explains what cloud users should know.

The trend to increasingly use digital technologies to work from home or on the road is expected to continue even after the Covid-19 pandemic. The majority of employees in Germany plan to continue to make greater use of digital technologies to work regardless of location.

Making the DNS ecosystem more secure requires the commitment of a variety of market participants. In March 2022, the eco topDNS initiative took part in Cloudfest in Rust with a view to heightening the direct awareness of this requirement within the industry.