The European data security convention is an international-law contract, which regulates the protection and the transnational exchange of personal data. The official designation reads "„conventions for the protection of humans with the automatic processing of personal data (convention No. 108) "“.

The convention was agreed upon on 28 January 1981 by the member states at that time of the Council of Europe and came into force on 1 October 1985.

With the convention the signing states wanted to guarantee the data security in the area of application of the convention. In view of the increasing transnational data traffic a uniform data security level should be manufactured within the signatory states. In addition, in the background the consideration was located that an exaggerated data security could restrain information exchange between the individual states.

The signing states were therefore obligated by the convention to protect the rights and basic liberties - in particular the personality rights - of humans living in their territory with the automated processing of personal data and to permit at the same time the free Datentransfer into other signatory states in principle.

The convention contains certain elementary data security principles, which were to be converted into domestic right, among them the principle of the data processing in accordance with faithful and faith, the appropriation principle, the Erforderlichkeitsprinzip as well as the requirement for information of the concerning. These principles apply however only to personal data, which are processed automated - thus with IT-support -. Personal data, those excluding manual to be processed - for example coworker data in personnel documents - are not subject to the European data security convention.

The Federal Republic of Germany belonged to the Erstunterzeichnern, ratified the convention however only on 19 June 1985 as the fifth state to Sweden, France, Spain and Norway. With the ratification by Germany the convention could step in these five states to 1 October 1985 into force.

In Austria the convention came into force on 1 July 1988, in Switzerland on 1 February 1998. Meanwhile 30 states of the European data security convention joined, last Liechtenstein at the 11. May 2004.

Related links

• Text of the European data security convention from 28 January 1981

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