Register modernization: Federal Council clears way for data protection cockpit
The cockpit aims to ensure transparency in data exchange between authorities. The federal states support the Federal Office of Administration's responsibility.
Federal and state governments agree on a path to administrative digitization in the Bundesrat.
(Image: frantic00/Shutterstock.com)
According to the current plans of the Online Access Act (OZG), public bodies and authorities will in future exchange data using the identification number (IDNr). This will enable data subjects to conveniently and digitally track when and for what reasons data was exchanged. Part of this implementation is the so-called Data Protection Cockpit (DSC). The data protection cockpit is intended to provide citizens with a digital and uncomplicated display of the data transfers that have taken place.
In future, the Federal Office of Administration (BVA) will be responsible for setting up and operating the new DSC as part of the controversial modernization of the register.
Tax ID to be introduced as a citizen number
On Friday, the Federal Council voted in favor of the draft "Responsibility Ordinance" of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI). According to this, the DSC will also serve as "constitutional compensation" for the fact that the tax ID will be introduced as a citizen number in public administration as an overarching classification feature and personal identifier in around 50 relevant federal and state databases.
Data protectionists, researchers, experts and the opposition were still up in arms against this requirement during the time of the black-red coalition. They raised massive constitutional objections, as the state would in future be able to call up a profile at the touch of a button. Meanwhile, however, the traffic light coalition is supporting the course. According to the regulation, the DSC should now provide citizens with a simple and useful overview of data transfers that have been made between authorities using the old-new identification number (IDNr). In the future, it will also be possible to display inventory data from the administrative registers that are relevant to the implementation of the Online Access Act (Onlinezugangsgesetz, OZG).
The cockpit will be expanded in stages
The BMI describes the DSC as "an IT component that has its origins in the OZG subject area of cross-sectional services". The BVA is already responsible for the identity data retrieval project, which is the prerequisite for connecting the register-keeping authorities and using the IDNr. This close cooperation and the BVA's assumption of the DSC's commissioning role at the beginning of 2023 will create synergies between the projects. The cockpit can now go live because of the regulation, which will come into force the day after its promulgation. Users will then be able to retrieve data transmissions from connected registers based on the ID number.
The BVA has commissioned the Bremen Finance Senate Administration with the actual implementation of the DSC. According to the BMI, the first expansion stage of a locally limited pilot project was completed in 2022. It included the ability to display the log and content data of the information transfers stored in the application based on the ID number. The second step, planned for 2024, will involve the inventory data. The third stage envisages the establishment of "control tools". Among other things, citizens will be given the option to contact the relevant authorities directly via the DSC.
(usz)
