BERLIN – The German government on Wednesday agreed on a strategy to boost the use of data for commercial purposes and signed a deal with state education authorities to fund laptops for teachers who have to work from home because of the virus lockdown.
The measures are part of a drive to boost digitalization in a country that has fallen behind many of its peers due in part to concerns about privacy and data protection.
Officials in the country often refuse to communicate with citizens by email, but Germans were nevertheless surprised to learn last year that many labs were still transmitting coronavirus test results by fax.