Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information

The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI, German: Bundesbeauftragter für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit), referring to either a person or the agency they lead, is tasked with supervising data protection as well as acting in an ombudsman function in freedom of information. The latter was introduced with the German Freedom of Information Act on 1 January 2006. In 2016, it became an independent federal agency under EU regulations.^[1]

AbbreviationBfDI

Formed1 January 1978 (48 years ago) (1978-01-01)

Federal agency
(Operations jurisdiction)Germany

Operations jurisdictionGermany

Quick facts Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information Bundesbeauftragter für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit, Abbreviation ...

Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information Bundesbeauftragter für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit
Abbreviation	BfDI
Agency overview
Formed	1 January 1978 (48 years ago) (1978-01-01)
Jurisdictional structure
Federal agency (Operations jurisdiction)	Germany
Operations jurisdiction	Germany
Legal jurisdiction	The BfDI is a completely independent authority not being under any external supervision.
General nature	Federal law enforcement
Operational structure
Headquarters	Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia
Agency executive	Moritz Hennemann
Website
http://www.bfdi.bund.de

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Under the motto "Access for one, access for all", the BfDI openly publishes speeches, lectures and documents that have been requested by citizens through Freedom of Information requests.^[2]

In 2021, the BfDI was given responsibility for advising and monitoring the Federal Environmental Information Act.^[3] In May 2022, the BfDI had the highest relative job growth of all German federal authorities. Between 2017 and 2021, the authority grew by 116%.^[4]