Peter Schaar
The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information

Privacy by Design: German experiences

Peter Schaar was born in Berlin in 1954. He is married with two children.

Holding a diploma in economics he worked from 1980 to 1983 with the Senate’s office for administrative services of the Free and Hanseatic Town of Hamburg.

Following his activities as head of section for data processing and statistics with the agency for schools and vocational training of the Free and Hanseatic Town of Hamburg he worked from 1986 to 1994 as head of section with the Hamburg Data Protection Commissioner. He was deputy there from 1994 to 2002.

In 2001 and 2002 he was a dedicated member of the Commission set up to accompany the modernization of Data Protection Law.

On November 1, 2002 he transitioned into private business and founded a consulting company for data protection, which he ran as managing director until October 2003. His further engagements are covering the Gesellschaft für Informatik (Society for Informatics), the International Working Group on Data Protection in Telecommunications (IWGDPT), the Hamburger Datenschutzgesellschaft (HDG, Hamburg Society of Data Protection) as well as the Humanistische Union (Humanistic Union).

In 2008, Peter Schaar was awarded the prize of the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation “Das politische Buch” (“the political book”) for his book Das Ende der Privatsphäre (The end of privacy). Peter Schaar is the laureate of the eco Internet AWARD 2008, the special award of the German Internet business of the Eco Forum. Since 2007 he has been a temporary lecturer at the department for informatics at the faculty for mathematics, informatics and natural sciences at the University of Hamburg.

Since December 17, 2003 he has been the Federal Data Protection Commissioner and on January 1, 2006, he became the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information. On November 26, 2008, the German Bundestag reconfirmed him in his office for another five-year term.

On the proposal of the Federal Government, the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information was elected by the German Bundestag with the majority of votes. He is appointed by the Federal President. His tenure is five years and he can be re-elected once.

The duties set out in the Federal Act Governing Access to Information adopted by the Federal Government (IFG) on September 5, 2005 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 2722) come in addition to his tasks of the Federal Commissioner for Freedom of Information which entered into force on January 1, 2006.