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.

It is difficult to predict how German reunification would have unfolded if the Internet had existed in its current form. However, approximately one in three Germans (30.5 per cent) believes that German reunification would have occurred sooner if the digital global networking had existed at that time. These are the results of a representative survey of 2,515 Germans conducted by the opinion research institute Civey on behalf of the eco – Association of the Internet Industry, on the occasion of this year’s German Unification Day.

On 11 May 2022, the EU Commission published its proposal for the CSAM Regulation calling for a variety of new provisions for providers of online services, the designation of so-called “Coordinating Authorities” in the Member States and the establishment of a European Centre to prevent and combat child sexual abuse.

eco Association welcomes the decision of the German Federal Constitutional Court regarding software data analysis undertaken by the police in Hessen and Hamburg. The court has declared the regulations on automated data analysis to be unconstitutional.

Claudia Plattner is to become the new president of the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). Norbert Pohlmann, eco Board Member for IT Security, congratulates.

The directive “for a high common level of cyber security” appeared in the EU Official Journal at the end of December and will enter into force on 16 January 2023. Numerous companies, state-owned enterprises and public authorities will have to comply with new requirements in the area of cyber security. eco Board Member Klaus Landefeld comments.

Head of the eco Complaints Office, Alexandra Koch- Skiba comments on the presentation of the draft Regulation laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse in the lead Committee on Civil Liberties of the EU Commissioner.

The European Court of Justice today ruled that the German regulations on blanket data retention are not compatible with EU law. The eco Association welcomes this judgement and calls for an urgent repeal of the current regulations.

The European Commission has presented the proposal for the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) regulation. Prof. Norbert Pohlmann, eco Board Member for IT Security, believes it is understandable that the EU wants to make digital systems even more secure and resilient in the future. However, he does not see an automatic improvement in security in the planned rules.

In the legal dispute between SpaceNet AG and the Federal Republic of Germany, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) will decide on 20 September whether the German regulations on data retention are compatible with EU law. eco has supported the lawsuit of SpaceNet AG from the beginning. According to the Association’s assessment, the general and unconditional storage of traffic data, with around 2.35 billion data records per day (IP addresses and telephony), affects almost all German users and costs the industry more than 600 million Euros.