“As a digital association, the promotion of women and diversity is a key issue for eco in order to ensure the future viability of Germany as a digital location,” says Oliver Süme, Chair of the eco Association.

With the call for unique and secure digital identities getting louder, Ekkehart Gerlach, Managing Director of the German ICT + Media Academy, predicts an increasing use of an ID card for the Internet, and reports on its many potential benefits.

“Politicians must pull the ripcord in order not to gamble away trust in digital communication,” says eco’s Vice-Chair Klaus Landefeld.

The current draft of the BND Act by the German Federal Chancellery is set to give the German Federal Intelligence Service permission to access inventory, traffic and content data without the knowledge of the operator in question. The eco Association warns of the consequences of such a regulation for general IT security and judges the draft as being unconstitutional.