After two years since the formation of the current German "traffic light" coalition, eco provides a mixed assessment of the progress in digital policy. In the Traffic Light Coalition Check, the association analysed twelve areas of Internet policy action and compared them with the goals of the coalition agreement. The conclusion reached by eco Chair of the Board Oliver Süme. “Instead of an ambitious digital policy, after two years of the current German coalition government, we are experiencing at best a stop-and-go.”

38.1 per cent pay attention to different payment methods when shopping on the Internet Relevant reviews from 36.4 per cent of other shoppers eco Association gives 7 tips for shopping on Black Friday without concerns With the Christmas shopping season beginning on Black Friday, 80.6 per cent of online shoppers are...

Germany is at a turning point. At the German federal government’s Digital Summit in Jena on 20 and 21 November 2023, representatives from business, society, science and politics will discuss how digital services and technologies contribute to addressing multiple challenges such as the fight against effects of advancing climate change, the increasing scarcity of resources, or the energy crisis.

To mark the European Day on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, the German hotlines FSM, eco and jugendschutz.net have compiled important tips for dealing in Germany with online depictions of abuse of minors.

Today, the EU Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) voted in favour of its recently presented compromise on the EU Commission’s proposed CSAM Regulation. With this compromise, the lead EU parliamentary committee imposes clear limitations on the proposed chat controls and opposes the weakening of end-to-end encryption.

Associations in Germany are calling for improvements in the conditions for network rollout. Today the Gigabit Symposium – organised by ANGA, Bitkom, BREKO, BUGLAS, eco and VATM – is reviewing the situation together with politicians and the industry, with the current German federal government now two years in action. The important EU level groundwork is also under discussion.

AI is a key technology of the future with a wide range of possible applications and the potential to transform the economy, science and society. Nevertheless, there are still major reservations about AI-based technologies in large parts of the German population, as displayed through an eco/Civey survey. eco calls for a broad debate in order to boost societal acceptance.

eco expressly welcomes the fact that the key theme of “digitalisation” is receiving its own federal state body at ministerial level for the first time, thereby aligning with the conferences of ministers of other established departments.

Sunita Ute Saxena is responsible for Public Safety, Governance and Critical Infrastructure at Deutsche Telekom Security GmbH. On 29 November, she will be speaking at the KRITIS Competence Group meeting in Cologne regarding the KRITIS Umbrella Act and the status of NIS2 transposition in Germany. She covers three questions about what this will entail.

In late October this year, more than 2,500 international participants from all over the world took part in the ICANN78 meeting in Hamburg. The shared goal was to ensure that the Internet continues to be securely usable for everyone according to clear rules. What is also increasingly evident to ICANN is that gender equality is a core factor for upgrading the innovative and secure Internet. One topic therefore pursued at the ICANN78 conference was entitled, “DNS Women – Expanding Our Impact”, a session in which eco Association had the privilege to take part in.

With the advent of the Internet, email began its triumphant advance as a means of communication. A representative survey conducted by the opinion research institute Civey on behalf of eco – Association of the Internet Industry shows that email is still very important tool to many people.

German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) Robert Habeck recently presented a strategy paper that, in particular, provides for a so-called bridge electricity price to relieve energy-intensive companies of the burden of rising electricity prices.

In order to build trust, what is therefore becoming ever more important is a digital trust mindset with commitments to security, transparency, and ethical use. Stakeholders are therefore leaning into and collaborating on trustworthy systems, ensuring that the Internet is ideal for all to use.

In an interview with eco, VS-Apps Managing Director Florian Schulz talks about the development and use of business apps for customer loyalty and process automation, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) and the importance of digital transformation for German SMEs.

Matthias Riedel, Head of Solution Advisory Digital Supply Chain at SAP will give the presentation “Future Proof your Supply Chain with SAP” at the CG Security Competence Meeting on 22 November 2023. In an eco interview, he talks about current security threats and the future development of the security landscape of digital supply chains.

ICANN celebrates 25 years of multistakeholder governance at ICANN78 in Hamburg. eco Association, DENIC eG and the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg have welcomed about 2,500 international visitors to ICANN78.

“Most people have realised that jobs in the IT industry offer attractive working conditions,” states Lucia Falkenberg, New Work Competence Group and CPO. She advises companies to strengthen their employer brand in this direction with seven tips.

From 21 to 26 October, Hamburg will be the centre of the Internet community: the 78th conference of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) will be held at the Congress Center Hamburg (CCH).

From 21 to 26 October, important decisions regarding the development of the Internet will be made in Hamburg. Hosted by the eco Association, DENIC eG and the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the event expects approximately 2,500 international visitors from research, the tech community, politics, business and civil society.  

Stefan Zenkel, Founder and Managing Director of dre aConTech GmbH, said in an eco member interview that people must be at the centre of digitalisation.

The use of digital levers in the industrial, urban and rural sectors will enable CO2 savings of 163 megatonnes by 2050. This is shown in a study conducted by eco and Arthur D. Little in cooperation with the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, the latter which was founded under the umbrella of eco.

At the request of the German CDU/CSU parliamentary group, the Legal Affairs Committee will today once again discuss the retention of private IP addresses. This is in spite of the fact that, on 22 September 2022, the ECJ already ruled that the German regulations on data retention are not compatible with Union law.

At the beginning of the 2023 heating season, only 8 per cent of Germans use smart heating thermostats that can be controlled via an app. Just a few take advantage of other digital solutions to save energy: 11.2 per cent of Germans control their lighting using motion detectors, while 10.3 per cent use smart shower heads. Additionally, only 7 per cent control their sockets via an app.

How can a network operator optimise resilience in the network? Dr Sebastian Lissek, Head of Network at envia TEL GmbH, talks about this in an interview: Dr Lissek, how does envia Tel define resilience for infrastructure? Resilience is the ability to identify cyberrisks, disruptions and exceptional events, to react to...

How can an infrastructure provider optimise resilience in the network? Wolfram Rinner, Managing Director of GasLINE GmbH & Co KG, talks about this in an eco interview.

Broadband expansion based on resilient fibre optic networks forms an important foundation for developing digitalisation, says Alexander Mager at Folan in an eco member interview.

From 26-29 February 2024, Barcelona will host the Mobile World Congress (MWC). In the run-up to the event, we had a conversation with Dr. Bettina Horster, Board Member at VIVAI Software AG and Head of the IoT Competence Group at eco Association, regarding her expectations for the trade fair and the trends in the Internet of Things (IoT) sector that will have a lasting impact on the industry in the future.

The strategic orientation of companies towards the cloud remains a key element for digitalisation in Germany as a business hub. This is evident in the newly released third edition of the joint study ECN Pulse Check. Techconsult conducted a survey on behalf of EuroCloud Native (ECN), the cloud-native initiative of EuroCloud Germany, in October 2023, involving 255 IT decision-makers from German companies.

The latest GXFS Whitepaper “Analysing the SSI World” sheds light on the world of Self Sovereign Identities (SSI) as a key concept in the Gaia-X and GXFS ecosystem. The Whitepaper provides comprehensive insights and emphasises the importance of broad engagement to advance the SSI concept.

In this three-question interview, Andreas Herden, Senior Vice President Germany and Continental Europe, talks about opportunities and challenges for Germany as a digital location and what he believes should be at the top of the political agenda.