The Local Germany

German villagers build own broadband network

Sun, 01 Jun 2014 12:28:00 +0200

Hacked off with slow download speeds the locals of Löwenstedt clubbed together the cash to build their own super-fast internet service to the delight of the village's tiny population.

City set to launch own domain name .berlin

Fri, 14 Mar 2014 11:16:00 +0100

Berlin will be the first city in the world to get its own domain name. Launching on Tuesday, .berlin already has 55,000 websites interested and other major metropolises will follow its lead.

Children and teens unlikely to stumble upon web porn

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 12:32:00 +0100

German parents need not panic about their children being exposed to internet pornography, according to a new study, which found that just one in 20 youths stumbled onto sexual content on the web in the past year.

Cabinet to consider tougher Street View rules

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:44:00 +0200

Coalition politicians are demanding Google be forced to gather residents’ consent to have their homes photographed for Street View rather than wait for them to object, as cabinet prepared Wednesday to discuss changes to the law.

German privacy gets tangled in Google's web

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:41:00 +0200

Google's announcement it would soon launch its "Street View" program in 20 German cities has sparked outrage among the country’s politicians and data protection experts. But how upset are average citizens? And is their privacy truly threatened? David Wroe reports.

Police demand tougher powers to fight child porn on web

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:08:00 +0200

Police are struggling to keep the internet clean of child pornography, with four out of 10 offending sites still accessible in Germany a week after they are posted, media reported Thursday.

New postal era beckons as official documents go electronic

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:50:00 +0200

Major German email providers are readying themselves for the new De-Mail system that will let users send letters and documents over the web that are just as legally binding as printed material delivered by post.

Minister calls for internet code of conduct

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:11:00 +0200

Germany's consumer minister, who vowed to delete her Facebook account in protest at the networking site's privacy policies, called Monday for an Internet "honour code" to protect personal data.

Minister threatens Facebook over privacy

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:40:00 +0200

Consumer Protection Minister Ilse Aigner has attacked Facebook’s plan to pass users’ personal details to third parties and even threatened to shut down her own account with the social networking site.

Twitter calls for help with the German tongue

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:05:00 +0200

Twitter, the world's fast-growing micro-blogging service, is calling for volunteers to translate its website into German.

Beatnik Berlin fostering high-tech start-ups

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:10:00 +0200

Long a magnet for artsy, creative types, Berlin has become a hotbed for technology start-ups. Sabine Devins reports on the German capital's new IT entrepreneurs.

German teachers subject to internet harassment

Mon, 26 May 2008 16:36:00 +0200

About 50,000 German teachers have been targets for harassment in the internet or through other forms of technology by their students, a teacher's union said on Monday.

Facebook goes Deutsch

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:59:00 +0100

Now Germans can "anstupsen" their friends. A newly launched German-language version of the social networking website Facebook makes a Teutonic version of "poke" possible.