Countries all over the world are trying to balance the needs of data scalability with consumer privacy. They are struggling to make this happen, although they have finally started making some progress. California recently passed a new data privacy law, which is the first of its kind in the United States. However, Germany seems to be far ahead of the United States in terms of data privacy.
Other countries will likely look to Germany as a model for data privacy. Here is what they should know.
Germany Emerges as the
Global Leader on Data Privacy
Technological progress has made it possible to accumulate and process vast amounts of personal data, concerning everything from our shopping behaviour to our political preferences. To meet this challenge, sweeping change has swept across European data-protection law. But nowhere is this change more pronounced than in Germany.
Germany’s history as a heavily authoritarian society has, obviously, shaped modern attitudes in the country toward government coercion. Those living under both the Third Reich and then later the GDR learned to be protective of their privacy “ because neither regime would respect its boundaries.
While a great deal has changed in Germany since then, a healthy scepticism toward data protection remains. These attitudes are illustrated in myriad ways. For example, a study by Harvard Business Review in 2015 determined that the average German is willing to pay twice as much as the average Briton for the certainty that their health data is being kept secure, and more than twenty times as much as the average American.
What about GDPR?
Companies wishing to do business in Germany will need to take data protection seriously, but the same can now be said of just about any other member state (and a few former members). The EU-driven GDPR has helped to level the playing field across the continent. Among other things, it empowers individuals to take action against organisations found to be in breach of the rules, rather than waiting for some official body to take care of things. In Germany, the EU law has strengthened many already-existing rules, as well as creating a few entirely new ones.
What Regulations are in
Place?
At the very same time that the GDPR came into effect, so too did a significant domestic legislation: the German Privacy Act. These rules require that firms take an even more stringent approach to data security. The designation of a DPO is now a requirement for any company where more than ten employees regularly process personal data, even if large parts of this process are automated.
There are also specific rules governing the way credit and background checks are handled. Such checks can now only be carried out under certain conditions. The data used must be relevant to the case in question, and the score must be calculated using approved statistical methods rather than simply drawing on the address data “ except in certain circumstances, where this cannot be avoided.
What does this all mean?
Among the most noteworthy sections of the new laws is section 42, which specifically marks out a number of data protection infringements and labels them criminal offences. These are punishable either via a fine, or via a three-year prison sentence. This might be reserved for more sinister, deliberate offences
The long-term implications of these changes remain to be seen. But among the potential consequences is a drive toward faster and more accurate record-keeping through technology. Digital data loggers are now available from RS Components, which allow workforces to record new data instantaneously. At the same time, advances in cloud storage allows for secure remote storage that comes with sophisticated encryption.