Prof. Dr. Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider

Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information

I am convinced: Studying law offers endless opportunities to sharpen your view of the world. This is how I felt and how I have experienced it time and again – in academia, in the legal profession and now as head of a supervisory authority. When I started my studies in Bremen in 2004, only half of the German population used the internet. Those were different times. Data protection still had a positive image and the significance of the internet for the economy, politics and society was hardly foreseeable and neither were the problems associated with it. Today, as Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, I have to deal with digital policy and digital law every day. These are extremely important fields and, in my view, essential to safeguard democracy and our European values. This is also true for data protection and freedom of information, which are the basis for the exercise of other fundamental rights such as freedom of expression or freedom of assembly. My studies of law at the University of Bremen were expanded by my doctorate and habilitation and professorships in K?ln, Passau and Bonn. I am Director of the Institute for Commercial and Economic Law and the Center for Medical Data Use and Translation (ZMDT) at the University of Bonn. Next to policy advising on data and consumer protection topics, it has been above all the work on legally compliant solutions for data exchange in healthcare, which has motivated me every day to do my part.