Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet agreed initial plans on Wednesday to boost European technology companies and make them a more favorable alternative to US peers, following unease over US surveillance of the Internet.
Merkel's chief of staff said on Monday that fears of mass US spying on Germans were unfounded, and Washington had assured Berlin it had upheld German law. But with an election looming in less than six weeks, the government has come under pressure to do more to protect citizens' private data.
"We need a strong European information technology industry which can offer alternatives," said Economy Minister Philipp Roesler. Among ideas to be explored, he listed more secure cloud computing and better links between technology start-ups and established industry.
First results would be discussed at a IT summit in Hamburg in December, he said.
A former US security contractor, Edward Snowden, set off an international furor when he told newspapers in June that the National Security Agency was mining the personal data of users of Google, Facebook, Skype and other US companies under a secret program codenamed Prism.
President Barack Obama last week announced plans to limit the sweep of government surveillance programs and make them more transparent.
Snowden, facing espionage charges back home, has been granted a year's asylum in Russia.
The German cabinet also agreed to negotiate with the European Commission on tightening EU data protection laws, and to pursue a "no-spy deal" with Washington, whose details are as yet unspecified.
Merkel's conservatives are still tipped to win the September 22 federal election, with opinion poll ratings at 40 percent, some 17 points ahead of the opposition Social Democrats (SPD). It is less clear whether Merkel can renew her center-right coalition with the Free Democrats (FDP), who are polling just 5 percent.
-
Why keeping track of AI assistants can be a tricky businessColumn Making the most of AI assistants means understanding what they can do – and what the workforce wants from them
-
Nvidia braces for a $5.5 billion hit as tariffs reach the semiconductor industryNews The chipmaker says its H20 chips need a special license as its share price plummets
-
Top data security trendsWhitepaper Must-have tools for your data security toolkit
-
Why bolstering your security capabilities is critical ahead of NIS2NIS2 regulations will bolster cyber resilience in key industries as well as improving multi-agency responses to data breaches
-
SEC data breach rules branded “worryingly vague” by industry bodyNews The new rules announced last week leave many questions unanswered, according to security industry experts
-
Crackdown on crypto needed to curb cyber crime, says expertNews Threat actors would struggle to generate money without the anonymity provided by unregulated digital tokens, but such a move would require worldwide buy-in
-
The gratitude gapWhitepaper 2023 State of Recognition
-
2022 Public Sector Identity Index ReportWhitepaper UK Report
-
UK, US condemn Iran for ‘unprecedented’ cyber attack against AlbaniaNews The Balkan nation has cut ties with Iran following the hack, which took down national infrastructure and exposed government information
-
UK gov invites experts to contribute to its overhauled AI regulatory approachNews The new approach will not adopt the EU's centralised model and sits alongside the National AI Strategy and Data Protection and Digital Information Bill
