18th Report on Activities
Bern, 27.06.2011 - The Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), Hanspeter Thür, is publishing his 18th Report on Activities today. The year under review was characterised by a number of important court rulings, intensive control and advisory activities, as well as awareness campaigns targeting young people. Furthermore, the efficiency and effectiveness of the Data Protection Act were evaluated. This may lead to a revision of the law.
During the course of last year, Switzerland’s highest courts addressed several cases raised by the FDPIC. In September 2010, the Federal Supreme Court’s ruling on the Logistep case to a large extent endorsed the position of the FDPIC, as did the Federal Administrative Court in its decision on Google Street View. The latter case will continue, however, as Google has appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. One issue that has been settled, on the other hand, is the harvesting of Wifi data gathered by Google’s Street View camera cars; the FDPIC came to the conclusion that this was not in conformity with Swiss data protection legislation.
In his capacity as the supervisory and control authority, the FDPIC has had to handle a large number of issues relating to data protection, in particular those concerning new technologies and developments which constitute a big challenge for data protection. He has written opinions on subjects such as the use of digital electricity meters (also known as smart meters), and drew attention to the use of so-called evercookies, which replicate themselves in PCs by storing a copy in several locations. They are virtually impossible to remove. Within this context, the FDPIC is closely monitoring the implementation of the EU e-privacy directive which, for the first time, provides an opt-in clause for cookies.
The use of biometric recognition systems is not new, but it still remains controversial and is becoming part of everyday life. While the case involving the KSS sports centre was being brought to a satisfactory conclusion from a data protection perspective, the FDPIC issued a recommendation to a tennis club which was using a reservation system equipped with biometric recognition that was not in conformity with legal provisions. He also examined various biometric recognition projects designed to pick out hooligans who go on the rampage in nightclubs and youth clubs, and provided advice to a company that had introduced a new badge verification system which relies on fingerprint technology.
With regard to police and justice issues, the FDPIC continued his inspections, which this year focussed on the Swiss Consulate General in Istanbul and the Swiss border police (in conjunction with the Schengen cooperation treaty). In both cases he recommended that measures be taken to optimise employee training and awareness. The FDPIC received an extraordinary number of requests for information in the wake of the report of the Parliamentary Control Committee published in the summer of 2010 which addresses the issue of data protection in the context of ISIS, the information system for state security. In passing, it should be noted that procedures will be simplified, making life easier for citizens wishing to obtain information. The revision of the Federal Act on Internal Security Measures is currently being discussed by parliament, and will allow the persons concerned to request information relating to ISIS directly from the intelligence services. Furthermore, the FDPIC gave an opinion on the revision of the federal law on the monitoring of postal and telecommunications traffic. He criticised the very broad scope of the law, as well as the excessively comprehensive catalogue of criminal acts relating to the use of monitoring programmes on PCs and smartphones. Unfortunately, his arguments were not heeded during the consultation process.
On the subject of health, the population has been clearly unsettled by the introduction of the new insurance card, as evidenced by the large number of enquiries on the subject received by the FDPIC. In addition, inspections were carried out on two mail-order pharmacies. The results showed that although there was a good understanding of data protection principles, there were uncertainties as to which health data has to be processed mandatory by law.
The Federal Office of Justice commissioned an outside partner to assess the effectiveness of the Data Protection Act. The FDPIC participated in the discussions of the advisory group. The assessment will be completed in 2011 and its findings may lead to a revision of the law. The FDPIC has set out some recommendations. In view of the rapid pace of development in the area of communication technologies, there is a need for greater transparency in the processing of personal data. Furthermore, data protection principles must be included in all projects and taken into account from the very outset (privacy by default).
As part of the measures to make young people aware of the need to handle their personal data with care, the FDPIC participated in a multimedia campaign that was launched under the aegis of the Council for the Protection of Individual Privacy.
On the subject of the principle of access to public records (freedom of information), there have been several groundbreaking court rulings. For example, the Federal Supreme Court’s decision was very much in line with the FDPIC’s own position demanding that access be given to the agreements on the termination of employment contracts in the case of two senior civil servants. The Court referred the case back to the Federal Administrative Court for a reappraisal. In February 2011, the latter ruled that the documents had to be made accessible. In a different case, the same court decided that the invalidity insurance checklist of the Federal Social Security Office had to be made available to the public. Its decision was based on the arguments presented by the FDPIC.
Other subjects covered in the 18th Report on Activities may be found in the attached summary.
Publisher
Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner
https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/edoeb/en/home.html
