The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI, ), 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.Sertan Sanderson (17 June 2015), Commissioner slams data retention policies Deutsche Welle.
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.
In 2021, the BfDI was given responsibility for advising and monitoring the Federal Environmental Information Act. 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%.
List of commissioners No.NameTime in officeParty1Hans Peter Bull1978–1983SPD21983–1988independent31988–1993independent41993–2003FDP52003–2013Alliance 90/The Greens6Andrea Voßhoff2014–2019CDU7Ulrich Kelber2019–2024SPD8Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider2024–2026independent9Moritz HennemannStephan Klenner (12 June 2026), Moritz Hennemann: Datenschützer, aber kein Bedenkenträger Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.2026–presentindependent
See also Information commissioner
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