Personal data - information about stored data

You can request information from any public body of the Federal Government, the State of Hesse, the municipalities and districts as to

• whether and, if so, what data is stored about you
• for what purpose and on what legal basis the data is processed,
• where the data originates from and to which recipients the data is transmitted if it is stored.

When will you not receive any information?

Information will not be provided for various security and confidentiality reasons laid down in the Federal or State Data Protection Act or in a sector-specific regulation (e.g. the Code of Criminal Procedure) or because the performance of tasks is jeopardized if your interest in the provision of information must therefore be overridden.

Special rules apply in certain areas, for example in the case of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the police.

See service description "Protection of the constitution: personal data - information"

Miscellaneous

According to § 34 of the Federal Data Protection Act, you also have a fundamental right to information from non-public bodies about the personal data stored about you, including information about the origin of this data, recipients or categories of recipients to whom data is disclosed and the purpose of storage.

To obtain information about your data, you must contact the body that has (possibly) stored data about you.

Application

If you would like to receive information about the data stored about you, you must submit a request. You do not have to justify your interest in obtaining information.

The request should specify the type of personal data about which you would like information. If your personal data is stored in files, information will only be provided if you provide details that enable the data to be found and the effort required to find the data is not disproportionate to your interest in information.

Provision or refusal of information

The data processing body determines the form in which the information is provided and inspected. In doing so, the legitimate interests of third parties must not be impaired.

If your request for information is rejected, you will receive a notification. The rejection of the request does not need to be justified if this would jeopardize the purpose of the refusal to provide information.

In this case, the body refusing to provide information will inform you that you can contact the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection in the case of federal public bodies or the Hessian Data Protection Commissioner in other cases.

The application is free of charge for you.