Press Release Prof Ulrich Kelber, Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI) until the beginning of July, has joined the European Academy for Freedom of Information and Data Protection (EAID). Its Chairman Peter Schaar, who was also BfDI from 2003 to 2013, is delighted with the new addition. "With Ulrich Kelber, we are gaining a committed and competent new colleague. In his years as ...

by Peter Schaar, 2 June 2024 The framework conditions for digitalisation are increasingly being determined at European level. The EAID therefore asked the parties running in the European elections on 9 June 2024 eight questions on data protection and transparency. The wording of the answers received by the end of May (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP and Piratenpartei) can be found ...

By Peter Schaar, European Academy for Freedom of Information and Data Protection, former Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information. On November 1, 2021, China's data protection law will come into force. Will this dispel all concerns about China's handling of personal data? Can European companies trust that their data will be processed ...

By Peter Schaar Just before Christmas, the European Commission gifted us with a draft Digital Services Act (DSA) - COM (2020) 825 final of 15.12.2020. The new regulatory framework aims to better protect consumers and their fundamental rights online, create a powerful and clear framework for transparency and accountability of online platforms, while improving ...

From Peter Schaar, 23.11.2020 In the discussion on measures to contain the corona pandemic, data protection is increasingly coming under scrutiny. Is the second wave of corona and the continuing sharp rise in the number of infections due to the fact that in Germany - unlike in some Southeast Asian countries - not all available personal data is collected and used? ...

Von Peter Schaar, 16.07.2020 With its decision today, the European Court of Justice has again underlined the importance of the fundamental right to data protection guaranteed by Article 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Almost five years after its landmark decision of 6 October 2015, in which the highest European court declared the then Safe Harbor Agreement invalid ("Schrems I"), the European ...

by Peter Schaar (6. 3. 2020) These days we are witnessing how carelessly fundamental and human rights are being treated in the face of supposedly existential threats. While Greece reacts to the increase in the number of refugees on the European external borders provoked by Turkey by "suspending" the human right to asylum, in Germany, in view of the increasing number of people infected with the Covid19 virus, there ...

By Peter Schaar, 15 January 2020 The current constitutional complaint against the Federal Intelligence Service Act before the Federal Constitutional Court is about more than the constitutionality of a federal law. The central question is rather whether German authorities are bound by the fundamental rights guaranteed by the German Basic Law even when they are active abroad. The focus here is on the fundamental ...

"Go back to Baltic Avenue!" - this command doesn't create a good mood in the Monopoly game. The same applies to the EU Member States' telecommunications and transport ministers who gathered in Brussels on December 3, 2019 for a Council meeting when the new Internal Market Commissioner, Thierry Breton, noted the temporary failure of the governments' almost three-year efforts to reach a consensus on the draft ...

By Peter Schaar Today (10 December 2019) is International Human Rights Day. It recalls that the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) exactly 71 years ago. Its first article reads:  "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and ...