Summary
Germany provides strong protection for cloud services, through a combination of comprehensive cybercrime legislation as well as an up-to-date cybersecurity strategy. Germany also has modern electronic commerce and electronic signature laws.
Germany has comprehensive privacy legislation, but it includes onerous registration requirements that may act as a cost barrier for the use of cloud computing.
Germany has a strong commitment to international standards and interoperability.
In the area of intellectual property, Germany offers good protection but there are some areas in which improvement could be made including further trade secrets protection.
Germany is making good progress on extending broadband access to the population. Its current target is to ensure that all households have access to broadband with speeds of at least 50 Mbps by the end of 2018.
Although Germany’s overall rank has improved since the last Scorecard — from third to first place — this stemmed largely from the rebalancing of the Scorecard methodology. The country’s improved scores in the security section of the report also contributed to the increase.