Woh­lers, Out­sour­cing of Data Pro­ce­s­sing and Pro­fes­sio­nal Sec­re­cy (Art. 321 StGB)

Prof. Wolf­gang Woh­lers has pre­pared an expert opi­ni­on on behalf of the Data Pro­tec­tion Com­mis­sio­ner of the Can­ton of Zurich on the que­sti­on of whe­ther the out­sour­cing of data pro­ce­s­sing is com­pa­ti­ble with pro­fes­sio­nal sec­re­cy. The expert opi­ni­on was recent­ly published in the dig­ma Schrif­ten zum Daten­recht published.

Prof. Woh­lers comes to the con­clu­si­on that the dis­clo­sure of a fact sub­ject to pro­fes­sio­nal sec­re­cy to an auxi­lia­ry per­son – who in turn may be a sui­ta­ble per­pe­tra­tor of a vio­la­ti­on of the appli­ca­ble sec­re­cy pro­vi­si­on – may alre­a­dy vio­la­te the secret. Wit­hout the con­sent of the owner of the secret, such dis­clo­sure is only per­mis­si­ble if (sic)

the dis­clo­sure of the secret to this per­son for the pro­per exe­cu­ti­on of the tasks to be per­for­med by the pri­ma­ry hol­der of the secret. indis­pensable and this for the secret lord pre­dic­ta­ble is.

In the case of an inf­rin­ge­ment, justi­fi­ca­ti­on by con­sent comes into que­sti­on. Howe­ver, con­sent is only effec­ti­ve if (sic)

the secret lord of the dis­clo­sure spe­ci­fi­cal­ly at issue befo­re dis­clo­sure in inde­pen­dent and in unam­bi­guous man­ner has agreed.

It is not rele­vant whe­ther the out­sour­cing takes place within Switz­er­land or abroad.

Prof. Woh­lers also spo­ke about the expert opi­ni­on at a trai­ning event. A report on this can be found on the web­site of the Web Week.

The Zurich District Court has in a recent­ly deci­ded case Howe­ver, a less rest­ric­ti­ve stance was adopted.