Data Protection : Germany

The advance of automated data processing (ADP) in almost every area of life in the modern industrial society has created new problems for the judicial system. Today computers are used to maintain bank accounts, to book seats on aircraft, to issue tax notices or to collate crime data at police headquarters. ADP has become indispensable in nearly all fields of administration and makes it possible to store huge quantities of data in such a manner that they can be retrieved at any time via global networks as well.

Modern communications technologies have greatly eased the workload of many companies and public authorities and are in the process of transforming our society into a global information society. Modern data technologies harbor risks as well, however. Stored data can be put to improper use and fall into the hands of unauthorized persons. Anyone with sufficient quantities of data has access to information on a person’s private life, which must remain inviolable. In 1977 federal and state legislation was introduced in Germany to safeguard the community against this danger. The laws specify how public authorities and private bodies (business firms, for example) must handle personal data. In 1990 the Federal Data Protection Act was updated.