Postulate Derder (15.4045): Right to use personal data. Right to copy
Adopted 18.12.2015
Submitted text
The Federal Council is instructed to examine and report on the extent to which individuals and the national economy could benefit from the further use of personal data. In particular, it should examine a “right to copy” for the individual.
Justification
Personal data is stored in ever greater quantities by companies, especially Internet companies and trading companies, as well as by public institutions, and exploited and used for their own purposes. The individuals concerned have at most limited access to this data and remain excluded from its further economic or scientific use (second use, “secondary use”). The Federal Council is to present a report on how this state of affairs can be changed in the interests of the individual. In particular, the report should provide information on the following points:
1. how can a person’s access to data relating to him or her be enshrined in law and guaranteed in the sense of a “right to a copy”?
2) How does such a “right to copy” relate to the protection against misuse of personal data as regulated in the Data Protection Act?
3) How should we assess the European Data Protection Supervisor’s intention to include the “right to copy” in the upcoming reform of European data protection legislation (see European Data Protection Supervisor: Privacy and competitiveness in the age of big data: The interplay between data protection, competition law and consumer protection in the Digital Economy, March 2014, page 15)?
4. how to assess the economic value of the secondary use of personal data, and what (additional) economic potential can be tapped by the secondary use of personal data under the control of the data subjects?
5. what legal, technical and organizational solutions can be considered for implementing access to personal data, and what effort will these solutions cause for companies and public administrations?
What plans do other countries or the EU have to enshrine the “right to copy” in law, and what role should Switzerland play in this environment?
Statement of the Federal Council
The Federal Council will carry out the requested review as part of the revision of the Federal Act on Data Protection (SR 235.1).