Inter­pel­la­ti­on Der­der (15.4253): Pro­tec­ting data so that it can be bet­ter used. An urgent neces­si­ty and an opportunity

Sub­mit­ted text

The amount of data pro­du­ced by citi­zens is incre­a­sing very rapid­ly. We are pro­du­cing – most­ly uncon­scious­ly – more and more and incre­a­sing­ly sen­si­ti­ve data (Big Data). The pro­tec­tion of indi­vi­du­al fun­da­men­tal free­doms, which are more threa­ten­ed than ever, is beco­ming a prio­ri­ty in our con­sti­tu­tio­nal sta­te and the task of the Fede­ral Data Pro­tec­tion and Infor­ma­ti­on Com­mis­sio­ner (FDPIC) is more important than ever.

I asked the Fede­ral Coun­cil whe­ther the man­da­te given to the FDPIC should not be review­ed and whe­ther it should be given more resour­ces (que­sti­on 15.5562). In its rep­ly, the Fede­ral Coun­cil recal­led that it is plan­ned to address the issue of the FDPIC’s tasks and resour­ces as part of the revi­si­on of the Fede­ral Act on Data Pro­tec­tion befo­re August 2016. Howe­ver, it did not com­ment spe­ci­fi­cal­ly on the con­tent of the que­sti­on posed, alt­hough the new FDPIC will be con­firm­ed in his func­tion during the next session.

Against this back­ground, I would ask the Fede­ral Coun­cil to ans­wer the fol­lo­wing questions:

1 It seems ine­vi­ta­ble that the tasks of the FDPIC will also increa­se due to the explo­si­on of data pro­du­ced. Will it be pro­vi­ded with the neces­sa­ry resources?

2 Why is the cur­rent revi­si­on of the law delay­ed? Will the draft be rea­dy by August 2016? Should it not be fina­li­zed ear­lier, sin­ce the fun­da­men­tal posi­ti­on of the EU on this issue is known?

3. is the Fede­ral Coun­cil awa­re of the out­stan­ding oppor­tu­ni­ties offe­red by big data, espe­ci­al­ly in the are­as of health, pre­cis­i­on medi­ci­ne and the tre­at­ment of serious dise­a­ses? Exploi­ting the­se oppor­tu­ni­ties requi­res that the sha­ring of per­so­nal data is encou­ra­ged. The pro­tec­tion of this data and pri­va­cy must the­r­e­fo­re be impro­ved so that the public’s trust in this system is streng­the­ned. Is the Fede­ral Coun­cil awa­re of this?

4. is the Fede­ral Coun­cil awa­re of the importance of this dos­sier and its urgen­cy in an era domi­na­ted by digi­tizati­on and data?

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h1>Statement of the Fede­ral Council

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1 The que­sti­on of incre­a­sing the resour­ces of the Fede­ral Data Pro­tec­tion and Infor­ma­ti­on Com­mis­sio­ner (FDPIC) will be exami­ned as part of the revi­si­on of the Data Pro­tec­tion Act (DPA; SR 235.1) and will depend on which tasks are assi­gned to him. The Fede­ral Coun­cil can­not com­ment on this at the pre­sent time, but will do so in the dispatch.

2. the Fede­ral Coun­cil intends to send the draft revi­si­on for con­sul­ta­ti­on by the end of August 2016 as plan­ned. The revi­si­ons at Euro­pean level – both the bills for a direc­ti­ve and a regu­la­ti­on of the Euro­pean Uni­on and the bill to moder­ni­ze Con­ven­ti­on No. 108 of the Coun­cil of Euro­pe – will be adopted in the cour­se of this year. For this rea­son, the Fede­ral Coun­cil is of the opi­ni­on that it does not make sen­se to bring the work for­ward. Moreo­ver, the Fede­ral Coun­cil intends to take into account as far as pos­si­ble the results of a regu­la­to­ry impact assess­ment (RIA) curr­ent­ly under­way, which are expec­ted in the spring.

3 The Fede­ral Coun­cil is awa­re of the oppor­tu­ni­ties offe­red by Big Data, but also of the new chal­lenges it poses in the area of data pro­tec­tion (see in par­ti­cu­lar its respon­se of 25 Febru­ary 2015 to Inter­pel­la­ti­on Graf-Lit­scher 14.4194). In order to bet­ter grasp this phe­no­me­non, he laun­ched a Natio­nal Rese­arch Pro­gram in June 2015 to lay the foun­da­ti­ons for an effec­ti­ve and appro­pria­te use of the ever-incre­a­sing amounts of data in all are­as of socie­ty (NRP 75 “Big Data”). Modu­le 3 of this pro­gram sup­ports the deve­lo­p­ment of Big Data appli­ca­ti­ons in various are­as of socie­ty, inclu­ding in par­ti­cu­lar the field of medi­ci­ne. In ful­fill­ment of the moti­on Rech­stei­ner 13.3841, the FDF has also set up the expert group “Future of Data Pro­ce­s­sing and Data Secu­ri­ty”, which will exami­ne in par­ti­cu­lar the social, poli­ti­cal and eco­no­mic aspects of Big Data. This group of experts will also address spe­ci­fic topics in the area of health, name­ly the elec­tro­nic pati­ent dos­sier. Big Data and the need to give more auto­no­my to the indi­vi­du­als con­cer­ned by streng­thening mea­su­res against misu­se and sta­te con­trol, among other things in the area of health, will moreo­ver be a topic of the Fede­ral Council’s new digi­tal stra­tegy. This will pro­ba­b­ly be adopted in the first half of this year. Final­ly, the RFA, which is being con­duc­ted as part of the revi­si­on of the DPA, should also pro­vi­de useful gui­dance on Big Data.

With the revi­si­on of the FADP, the Fede­ral Coun­cil intends to streng­then data pro­tec­tion name­ly by incre­a­sing the trans­pa­ren­cy of data pro­ce­s­sing and impro­ving the con­trol of data sub­jects over their data. The revi­si­on should make it easier to crea­te or main­tain a cli­ma­te of trust that could encou­ra­ge the exch­an­ge of per­so­nal data.

4 The topic of data pro­tec­tion is of cen­tral importance to the Fede­ral Coun­cil, as shown by the ongo­ing work men­tio­ned in sec­tion 3, in par­ti­cu­lar the estab­lish­ment of the expert group “Future of Data Pro­ce­s­sing and Data Secu­ri­ty”. Moreo­ver, in the area of legis­la­ti­on, the ope­ning of the con­sul­ta­ti­on on the revi­si­on of the DPA is part of the Fede­ral Council’s objec­ti­ves for 2016 (objec­ti­ve 2).