Is there “data protection tourism” in Germany? Are companies specifically looking for locations in federal states whose supervisory authorities interpret the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rather laxly? This question moves the relevant community, and therefore also the c’t data protection podcast is a matter of interpretation.
dr Stefan Brink in the podcast A Matter of Interpretation
Editor Holger Bleich and Heise-Justiziar Joerg Heidrich discuss this controversially with Dr. Stefan Brink. The former data protection officer of Baden-Württemberg is the founder and managing director of the Scientific institute for the digitization of the working world, wida, in Berlin. Brink does not mince his words in the podcast episode and takes stock of his tenure (2016 to the end of 2022).
The former head of the agency poses as an advocate of the federal system of data protection supervision. He can’t see any problems. “As a company, you get legal certainty from the data protection authority if you ask them”. You just have to insist on getting information. “The rest is then ‘Mimimi’ in the form: But I know another supervisory authority that takes a friendlier view.” It is then no longer about legal certainty, but about “make a wish”.
“An impertinence”
Brink harshly criticized the body of the German data protection authorities, the Data Protection Conference (DSK): “The DSK is an impertinence for all participants. There is little that has saddened me as much in recent years as the cooperation in the DSK. When I decided to take off my hat, that wasn’t a factor that made me hesitate.”
Immherin “the DSK has pulled itself together well in recent years. We should work on making the DSK decisions more binding, further institutionalizing the body”. Brink advocates “strengthening the DSK as a higher authority”. The question will be: “Do we insist on unanimous decisions by the DSK, or do we allow majority decisions that all supervisors have to adhere to. That will be exciting, because then the independence of the authorities guaranteed by the GDPR would also be affected. It is the right one approach to support this through federal legislation.”
Episode 84:
Here are all the episodes so far:
(hob)
