NZZ of 17.3.2016: Interview with the new FDPIC Adrian Lobsiger
The state also collects data – you mentioned the Federal Office of Police, of which you are deputy director. Are warnings about the police collecting too much data justified?
Based on my experience, the interests of the police are often not so different from those of data protection: an intelligent police force does not collect as much information as possible, but rather the relevant information. The American police culture, for example, is far more characterized by data collection than ours. Nevertheless, this does not result in more criminal proceedings, but often even fewer.Ultimately, this raises the question of what should be given greater weight: freedom or security?
Clearly freedom. In a liberal constitutional state, there is a fundamental right to freedom. But there is no fundamental right to security. Security is certainly an important state task, but even special threat situations or even possible attacks cannot change the lack of a fundamental right to security. Freedom is always associated with risks.
But there is also no freedom without security.
Without food, there is also no freedom, because people would die. Yet there is no fundamental right specifically to food or clothing. If one wanted to define security as a fundamental right, it would be acceptable in terms of fundamental rights to vegetate in extreme security situations in North Korean conditions and without any freedom. But that is precisely what our constitution seeks to prevent. On the other hand, it is quite conceivable to live in an insecure but free country.
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The Data Protection Act is currently being revised. What are the most important goals from your point of view?
The most important thing is that the law remains technology-neutral. We must not make laws for individual technologies of which we do not know how they will develop. Technology- and application-specific details must be regulated at a lower level. Otherwise, we will have a law with hundreds of articles that always lag behind developments and have to be revised.