Protecting privacy was on the minds of almost all the dignitaries assembled in Hanover, Germany, on Sunday night to open this year's Cebit trade show, the theme of which is "datability," or big data with responsibility. Referring to the accelerating accumulation of digital data, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: "This digital world has to be given a legal framework, an underlying order. We're only at the beginning of that. National laws alone will not suffice."