Art. 15 GDPR - Rights to information in data protection

According to Art. 15 GDPR, every person has the right to know whether their personal data is being processed.

This harmless-sounding regulation has the potential to paralyse entire local authorities in their daily work if they do not prepare for this relatively new requirement from their citizens. Avoiding this requires knowledge of the legal requirements and practical handling of this new regulation.

What is it about?

In the event of a corresponding request on the basis of Art. 15 GDPR, local authorities must first provide information as to whether personal data of the applicant is processed in the administration. This does not always have to be a resident of the municipality. Data of persons who have no direct connection to the municipality can also be processed.

An example: A car driver was speeding. The road traffic authority of the district has identified the owner of the vehicle, issued a fine notice and stored the owner data. Simply finding out whether personal data is being processed does not cause any particular workload for the administration. However, this changes if the person concerned wishes to exercise their right to information about this personal data. Copies of the personal data must then also be made available to them.
 
While consumer protection organisations have already interpreted the right to information under Art. 15 GDPR very broadly in the past, companies and authorities obliged to provide information were confident that things would not get so bad. The Federal Court of Justice ((Ref.: VI ZR 576/19 of 15.06.2021) initially dashed these hopes. Nevertheless, the regulation still leaves both legal and practical leeway for dealing with such requests.

The two-hour webinar provides an overview of the individual claims arising from Art. 15 GDPR, explains the current case law on the standard and its applicability to local authorities and gives practical advice on how local authorities should deal with corresponding requests for information in order to avoid being paralysed.