The eco Association takes stock of digital policy after 100 days of the new German federal government. Although the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs has fulfilled a long-standing demand of the industry, many core digital projects have not yet crossed the starting line. eco sees urgent need for action, particularly in the areas of AI, data centres, administrative digitisation and data protection. eco also critically evaluates the plans for data retention in the new security package.

In addition to well-known Internet endings such as “.de” and “.com”, there is now a wide range of abbreviations that web addresses can end with – and rightly so, as a recent YouGov survey commissioned by eco shows. More than half of Germans consider them to be useful. Thomas Rickert, Director Names & Numbers at eco, contextualises the results.

The German Federal Constitutional Court has declared key regulations concerning Lawful Interception at the Source (Quellen-TKÜ) and online state searches to be partially unconstitutional. eco Board Member Klaus Landefeld welcomes the decision but warns of unresolved risks for IT security.

One year ago, on 1 August 2024, the European AI Act came into force – a historic milestone for the global regulation of artificial intelligence. Europe has thus set comprehensive standards.