Interpretation aids of the German supervisory authorities on the new European data protection law

The German supervisory authorities are currently working in detail on the new legal bases of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and its requirements and are coordinating a uniform view. Initial results of this process are brief papers that were adopted by the Conference of the Independent Data Protection Authorities of the Federal Government and the German States (DSK) and which have been published since July 3, 2017. These brief papers serve as a first guide as to how the DSK believes that the Regulation should be applied in practice.

The first three papers deal with the following topics:

• Directory of processing activities,
• Supervisory powers/Sanctions,
• Processing of personal data for advertising purposes.

The papers are available for download on the websites of the supervisory authorities (http://www.lfd.niedersachsen.de/startseite/allgemein/presseinformationen/
auslegungshilfen_zum_neuen_datenschutzrecht/auslegungshilfen-zum-neuen-datenschutzrecht-155361.html).

The Data Protection Conference emphasizes that the interpretation aids on the new European data protection law are subject to future interpretation aids  by the European Data Protection Committee that may be differing.

Pracital tip:

In addition to the opinions and interpretation guides of the Article 29 Working Party on Data Protection, which are regularly published on its website (http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/index_en.htm), the German supervisory authorities have now also issued their first coordinated interpretation aids on the GDPR. Companies are thus obtaining guidance on interpreting the rules of the new European data protection law for their projects on implementing the GDPR.