OSZ TIEM, Berlin, Germany

 

 

Ways of expressing freedom of thought,expression and information – international facts

 

 

The first act in the world for Data Protection launched in 1970 in Germany (Hessen). The judgement of the German Federal-Constitutional-Court in “census of population” in 1983 pointed out, that all existing laws were not enough. In 1990 the “Federal Data Protection Act” was first established in Germany.

 

In 1995 the European Parliament and the Council declared ”the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data“.

 

At least in Germany in 2004 the German Bundestag with the consent of the German Bundesrat has adopted the “Telecommunications Act”.

 

Only in charge of the German Parliament is the “Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information”. He and his institution are watching all dealing with personal data to prevent from violations of personal integrity, the privacy.

 

 

Also the European Data Protection Supervisor is an independent supervisory authority devoted to protecting personal data and privacy and promoting good practice in the EU institutions and bodies. It does so by:

 

·          monitoring the EU administration's processing of personal data;

·          advising on policies and legislation that affect privacy; and

·          co-operating with similar authorities to ensure consistent data protection.

 

 

 

 

The Federal Commissioner’s labour for Data Protection and Freedom of Information is necessary for us, the citizens in these topics:

 

Biometrics and chip identity cards in every day working life

Nowadays, in nearly all areas of the working life, contactless company – or chip identity cards are being used. On the one hand they serve the purpose of time recording, but often simultaneously as access keys. This allows not only the logging of coming and going, but also the accessing and leaving of individual rooms. By using cards, in-house movement profiles of individual employees could be easily created.

Career counselling

Career counselling involves providing advice and information on issues related to career selection and change.

Employment Agency

The services of the state employment agencies are mainly used by persons seeking a new job.

Health data in the working life

The desire of employers to know as much as possible about their employees’ state of health is strong. However, with regard to data protection law, the processing of health data is particularly critical; concerning these data, the legal yardsticks are more strict than for any other personal data. However, contrary to the current jurisdiction by labour courts, female applicants are still asked whether they are pregnant.

Job placement

To receive job placement and counselling services, applicants first fill out an application form. The information on the form is then entered into a computer, to be processed as part of computer-assisted job placement (coArb).

The flow of personnel data in international corporate groups

If the salary account for employees of a German branch office in Singapore is established, if employees’ data are stored in a computer in India or if the company’s e-mail server is operated in San Francisco, it is difficult to put data protection into effect.

The flow of personnel data in national corporate groups

In major corporate groups employee data flows happen quite often. Regular issues are the access of the parent company to data of the subsidiaries, a uniform personnel management across the group or the access across the group to employee data in the framework of personnel data bases comprising the whole corporate group.

The use of the Internet and e-mails at the workplace

Nowadays, at the workplace, most employees have access to the Internet. Each e-mail and each call of a website leaves traces in the in-house IT-systems. While, when using the Internet at home, those data are only accumulated at the provider of the respective service, the employer also gets knowledge of the surfing behaviour – sometimes with considerable consequences for the employees when surfing on the Internet in office.

Video surveillance

Nowadays, video surveillance of publicly accessible areas or also of companies is widely used. The purpose is to protect objects against vandalism, theft or other property crimes or to protect persons. In general, the whole purpose of video surveillance is not the monitoring and control of employees. However, both are often congruent. Thus, at banks or in parking garages, in the area of cash desks of department stores or museums – virtually casually – also employees are monitored. Be it casually or used for a certain purpose, it applies to both cases that video registration of employees is only admissible within strict limits.

 

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