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From my German perspective this whole GDPR panic is so interesting. The GDPR is basically a carbon copy of the data protections laws that have evolved in German

From my German perspective this whole GDPR panic is so interesting. The GDPR is basically a carbon copy of the data protections laws that have evolved in Germany since 1977. Yet we still have many thousands of small companies dealing with data, individuals running web forums etc. It's especially funny when small to medium German companies suddenly panic because of the GDPR and when you look at their situation all you can say is "yeah, you should have implemented that 15 years ago, it's already been German law that long". In Germany not much will change, but at least companies like Facebook can no longer just move to another country with worse privacy laws (like Ireland) and call it a day. For us the GDPR means that protecting user data will no longer be a competitve disadvantage. But if you're a small company and handling data reasonably, the GDPR won't hurt you anyway.

tobltobs 8y ago
Data Protection Officer, right to be forgotten, data exportability, ... Can you hint me to one of those German laws which do require one of the above?
- skrause 8y ago
  https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesdatenschutzgesetz https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesdatenschutzgesetz It literally translates to "federal data protection law" and has been German law since 1978. In certain conditions it has also mandated a DPO (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datenschutzbeauftragter https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datenschutzbeauftragter) since then, but in fact the first DPO position in Germany was created in 1971. The right to be forgotten is mandated by article 35 BDSG (https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bdsg_1990/__35.html https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bdsg_1990/__35.html). The right to a data export is mandated by article 34 BDSG (https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bdsg_1990/__34.html https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bdsg_1990/__34.html). It has always been common use this law to get a free copy of the data which our credit reporting agencies have about you, I've done that multiple times.
  - tobltobs 8y ago
    Thank you for those detailed links. They are kind of eye opening, and I am German. However, it is hard to understand how stuff like GEZ, Schufa and article 35 can exist concurrently in the same country.
    - skrause 8y ago
      Schufa (the biggest consumer credit reporting agency in Germany) and article 35 can certainly co-exist. In fact you can write to Schufa and request that they delete all your data. However, if you do that, good luck ever getting a mortgage, credit card or other post-paid services ever again if all credit report requests come back with the reponse "no data available". So I wouldn't recommend that.
      - cesarb 8y ago
        > However, if you do that, good luck ever getting a mortgage, credit card or other post-paid services ever again if all credit report requests come back with the reponse "no data available". So I wouldn't recommend that. How does that work for people who never had a Schufa history? If for instance I decided to move today from Brazil to Germany, would I be unable to do all these things there, since they would have "no data available" on me?
        ahakki 8y ago
        You‘ll still have access. Probably at a higher rate.
        skrause 8y ago
        The reports for people who are just new in the system and for people who had their data deleted by request are different.
      - tobltobs 8y ago
        There are thosuands of horror stories how the Schufa isn't able or willing to correct wrong data. And no data protection agency in Germany did ever brought such a case to a court.

tobltobs 8y ago

Data Protection Officer, right to be forgotten, data exportability, ... Can you hint me to one of those German laws which do require one of the above?

skrause 8y ago
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesdatenschutzgesetz https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesdatenschutzgesetz It literally translates to "federal data protection law" and has been German law since 1978. In certain conditions it has also mandated a DPO (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datenschutzbeauftragter https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datenschutzbeauftragter) since then, but in fact the first DPO position in Germany was created in 1971. The right to be forgotten is mandated by article 35 BDSG (https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bdsg_1990/__35.html https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bdsg_1990/__35.html). The right to a data export is mandated by article 34 BDSG (https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bdsg_1990/__34.html https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bdsg_1990/__34.html). It has always been common use this law to get a free copy of the data which our credit reporting agencies have about you, I've done that multiple times.
- tobltobs 8y ago
  Thank you for those detailed links. They are kind of eye opening, and I am German. However, it is hard to understand how stuff like GEZ, Schufa and article 35 can exist concurrently in the same country.
  - skrause 8y ago
    Schufa (the biggest consumer credit reporting agency in Germany) and article 35 can certainly co-exist. In fact you can write to Schufa and request that they delete all your data. However, if you do that, good luck ever getting a mortgage, credit card or other post-paid services ever again if all credit report requests come back with the reponse "no data available". So I wouldn't recommend that.
    - cesarb 8y ago
      > However, if you do that, good luck ever getting a mortgage, credit card or other post-paid services ever again if all credit report requests come back with the reponse "no data available". So I wouldn't recommend that. How does that work for people who never had a Schufa history? If for instance I decided to move today from Brazil to Germany, would I be unable to do all these things there, since they would have "no data available" on me?
      - ahakki 8y ago
        You‘ll still have access. Probably at a higher rate.
      - skrause 8y ago
        The reports for people who are just new in the system and for people who had their data deleted by request are different.
    - tobltobs 8y ago
      There are thosuands of horror stories how the Schufa isn't able or willing to correct wrong data. And no data protection agency in Germany did ever brought such a case to a court.