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Exercising Access Rights in Germany

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The Unaccountable State of Surveillance

Part of the book series: Law, Governance and Technology Series ((ISDP,volume 34))

Abstract

This chapter outlines the experiences of attempting to exercise one’s right of access in Germany. Using rich, ethnographic examples, this chapter tests how easy or difficult it is for a data subject based in Germany to obtain their personal data, firstly by locating the required information about organisations and their data controllers and secondly by submitting subject access requests to these organisations. The chapter reflects on the differences (if any) between public and private sector organisations in the process of responding to access requests as well as the role of the regional Data Protection Authority in Germany.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Bundesverfassungsgericht (German Constitutional Court) decisions volume 65, p. 1ff.

  2. 2.

    Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany in the revised version published in the Federal Law Gazette Part III, classification number 100-1, as last amended by the Act of 21 July 2010 (Federal Law Gazette I, p. 944). Translation taken from: http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_gg/englisch_gg.html#p0015 (last accessed 20 December 2013).

  3. 3.

    German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht), BVerfG, 1 BvR 2378/98 vom 3.3.2004, Absatz-Nr. (1–373) judgment of 3 March 2004 – 1BvR 2378/98 and 1BvR 1084/99, available at: http://www.bverfg.de/entscheidungen/rs20040303_1bvr237898.html (last accessed 20 December 2013).

  4. 4.

    German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht), BVerfG, 1 BvR 370/07 vom 27.2.2008, Absatz-Nr. (1–267), judgment of 27 February 2008, available at: http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/entscheidungen/rs20080227_1bvr037007en.html (last accessed 20 December 2013).

  5. 5.

    German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht), BVerfG, 1 BvR 1299/05, order of 24 January 2012, http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/pressemitteilungen/bvg12-013en.html (last accessed 20 December 2013).

  6. 6.

    Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG), in the version promulgated on 14 January 2003 (Federal Law Gazette I, p. 66), last amended by Article 1 of the Act of 14 August 2009 (Federal Law Gazette I, p. 2814), in force from 1 September 2009, available at: http://www.bfdi.bund.de/EN/DataProtectionActs/Artikel/BDSG_idFv01092009.pdf?__blob=publicationFile (last accessed 20 December 2013).

  7. 7.

    Ibid.

  8. 8.

    Federal Constitutional Court, (Bundesverfassungsgericht), 1BvR 256/08 of 2.3.2010, paragraph no. (1–345), judgement of 2 March 2010, available at: http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/entscheidungen/rs20100302_1bvr025608.html (last accessed 20 December 2013). For the English press release on the ruling, see: Federal Constitutional Court, (Bundesverfassungsgericht), http://www.bverfg.de/pressemitteilungen/bvg10-011en.html (last accessed 20 December 2013).

  9. 9.

    ECJ, European Commission v. Federal Republic of Germany, case C-518/07, 9 March 2010.

  10. 10.

    Personal information provided via telephone.

References

Legislation and Case Law

Articles and Reports

  • Biermann, Kai (2011) “Was Vorratsdaten über uns verraten”, in Die Zeit Online, 24.2. 2011, http://www.zeit.de/digital/datenschutz/2011-02/vorratsdaten-malte-spitz (last accessed 20 December 2013)

  • Datenschmutz.de (2014) ‘Datenbanken der Sicherheits- und Repressionsbehörden’, http://www.datenschmutz.de/moin (last accessed 14 April 2014)

  • Hoss, Dennis, “Auskunftsrecht des Betroffenen aus § 34 Abs. 1 BDSG in der Praxis: wirksames Instrument oder zahnloser Tiger”, Juris, RDV 2011, 6–11

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  • Killian, Wolfgang, (2008) “Germany” in James B. Rule and Graham Greenleaf (eds) Global Privacy Protection – The first Generation pp. 80–106

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  • Prescient (2012) “Assessing citizens’ concerns and knowledge of stored personal data”, available at http://www.prescient-project.eu/prescient/index.php (last accessed 20 December 2013)

  • Papier, Hans-Jürgen (2012) “Verfassungsrechtliche Grundlegung des Datenschutzes” in Jan- Hinrik Schmidt and Thilo Weichert (eds) Datenschutz Bonn, Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung

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  • Roßnagel, Alexander (2003) Handbuch Datenschutzrecht. Die neuen Grundlagen für Wirtschaft und Verwaltung München, Beck

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Criminological Social Research, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Nils Zurawski

Authors
  1. Nils Zurawski
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Correspondence to Nils Zurawski .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Clive Norris

  2. Law, Science, Technology & Society, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

    Paul de Hert

  3. Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Xavier L'Hoiry

  4. Studies of Law, LSTS Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

    Antonella Galetta

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Zurawski, N. (2017). Exercising Access Rights in Germany. In: Norris, C., de Hert, P., L'Hoiry, X., Galetta, A. (eds) The Unaccountable State of Surveillance. Law, Governance and Technology Series(), vol 34. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47573-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47573-8_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47571-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47573-8

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

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