Germany: German Coalition Agreement published with planned data governance measures

On 24 November 2021, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Alliance 90/The Greens, and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) have published the coalition agreement on which they seek to base a future government. The agreement contains numerous plans related to data governance, such as the introduction of an individual right to encryption of data and the criminalisation of unlawful de-anonymisation of data. The parties also plan to institutionalise the Data Protection Conference - the committee of German data protection authorities - and granting it regulatory powers. Further, the agreement contains numerous plans by which the parties intend to improve access to data for businesses by, among other things, establishing a data institute responsible for ensuring the availability and standardisation of data. A legal claim to open data is also planned.