privacy
OVG judgment: Questioners do not have to provide a postal address
A woman looks at the “fragdenstaat.de” portal on a tablet computer. Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
In the case of anonymous questions on the “fragdenstaat.de” portal, no personal data may be stored. The data protection officer prevailed in court against the Ministry of the Interior.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior may not demand the postal address of a questioner who had asked for information via the Internet platform fragdenstaat.de. The Higher Administrative Court (OVG) of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia decided on Wednesday.
The Higher Administrative Court thus overturned a decision by the Cologne Administrative Court in the appeals process and agreed with the Federal Data Protection Commissioner. He had warned the Ministry of the Interior.
The warning was lawful, as the OVG ruled. The Freedom of Information Act does not require a postal address. Because of the fundamental importance, the court allowed an appeal to the Federal Administrative Court (Az.: 16 A 857/21 and 16 A 858/21).
In a second case, the OVG judges agreed with the Ministry of the Interior. The specifications for data processing by the data protection officer were too far-reaching.