In Germany, the German constitution guarantees human dignity, privacy of letters and telecommunication, and privacy of the home through Articles 1, 10 and 13. The constitution also states that under no circumstances may the essence of a basic right be infringed.
Online data privacy, in particular, is partially ruled by the German Telemedia Act, an adapted version of the GDPR which still adheres to the spirit of the legislation. Germany also relies on the Telecommunications Act for its privacy provisions.
Under the Census Decision of the German Federal Constitutional Court in 1983, Germany established that citizens have the right to “informational self-determination,” which outlaws the handling of personal data unless given consent or dictated by law. These rules were incorporated into the Federal Data Protection Act in 1990.
These laws specify that personal data can be used only to the extent specified by law, and it can only be used for the purposes specified under the law, unless given consent. Data is separated into contract data and utilization data.
- Contract data is the data that are required to establish, develop, or change a contractual relationship with media service provider, and is to be collected sparingly.
- Utilization data is the personal data that a media service provider may collect and use to facilitate use of the service and for accounting purposes, and may not reveal the identity of the user.
Contract and utilization data is considered highly sensitive, and must be collected and used only as required, and must be deleted/made anonymous when no longer needed. Special forms of consent are required for data intended to be used for marketing or smartphone applications. In addition, the collection of sensitive data is only allowed with explicit consent.
The issue of data privacy in Germany has many opportunities to arise in the life of a journalist. For instance, creating a news-oriented app available for download on mobile devices requires a variety of certain permissions from users. These permissions would need to be explicitly granted by the user, and the data could only be used for the purposes outlined in the agreement.
Here are a few tips for being a journalist in Germany:
- Never use private data of citizens for the purpose of journalistic reporting.
- Outline the purposes of the data you collect very clearly, and never utilize the data beyond those means.
- Be sure to delete or make anonymous the data you use for the purpose of being a media service provider once it is no longer needed.
Reporting in Germany, Mexico, and the U.S. 