Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information
Peter Schaar, Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, is visiting Washington D.C. October 29th and 30th. He will be meeting with members of government and speaking on topics such as: The reform of the EU privacy law and its implications for the U.S., the future of privacy law in the U.S., and activities and initiatives of the Federal Trade Commission, Chamber of Commerce and the White House.
Bio:
Peter Schaar was born in Berlin in 1954. He is married and has two children.
On the proposal of the Federal Government, Peter Schaar was elected the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection by the German Bundestag on 17 December 2003. With the entry into force of the Federal Act Governing Access to Information held by the Federal Government on 1st January 2006, one more function came in addition to his tasks and he became the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information. On 26 November 2008 the German Bundestag reconfirmed him in his office for another five-year term.
Holding a diploma in economics Peter Schaar first worked in different assignments at the administrative service of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg prior to assuming the function of head of section with the Hamburg Data Protection Commissioner in 1986. He was deputy there until 2002 and finally he was a dedicated member of the Commission set up to accompany the modernization of Data Protection Law. On 1st November 2002 he changed into private business and founded a consulting company for data protection which he ran as managing director until October 2003.
In 2008, Peter Schaar was awarded the prize of the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation “Das politische Buch” (“The Political Book”) for his book Das Ende der Privatsphäre (The end of privacy). In addition, he is a temporary lecturer at the faculty for mathematics, informatics and natural sciences at the University of Hamburg and he is active in the Humanistische Union (Humanistic Union).