Supervisory authority

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Supervisory authority

What does Supervisory authority?

There are separate supervisory authorities for the area of data protection (Art. 4 No. 21, Art. 51 GDPR). They monitor compliance with data protection regulations, provide advice and Responsible persons and sanction any violations. Unlike in other EU member states, there is not just one data protection supervisory authority in Germany. There is one authority in each federal state - with the exception of Bavaria, where there are two, one for the public sector and one for the non-public sector. There is also the Federal Data Protection Commissioner (BfDI). This is responsible for the data protection supervision of all federal public bodies, certain social security institutions and telecommunications and postal service companies (insofar as they provide telecommunications or postal services). In addition to the 18 supervisory authorities of the federal states, there is also one for the Catholic Church and one for the Protestant Church in Germany.

Practical example

The Supervisory authority monitors compliance with data protection and can impose fines or order measures in the event of violations.

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administrator