Andrea Voßhoff
German lawyer and politician / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Andrea Voßhoff is a German former lawyer who switched to full-time politics in mid-career (CDU). She served as a member of the Bundestag between 1998 and 2013 when, as a "party list" candidate, she narrowly failed to secure re-election in the Brandenburg-Potsam electoral district.[1]
Andrea Voßhoff | |
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Born | 31 July 1958 |
Occupation(s) | Lawyer-notary-office manager Local politician National politician Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information |
Political party | CDU |
Spouse | Peter-Michael Voßhoff |
At the end of 2013 it was announced that she had been appointed to serve as Germany's data protection commissioner in succession to Peter Schaar, with effect from 6 January 2014. The appointment drew widespread criticism from those who saw it as a consolation prize for a politician who had served her party loyally in the Bundestag for fifteen years. Opponents pointed to a parliamentary voting record that showed no great affection for the right to personal privacy. She had, indeed, supported a number of controversial proposals and pieces of government legislation in respect of matters such as data retention, online data access involving (in particular) child abuse, government access to citizen's computers using undisclosed spying software and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. She nevertheless served out a full five-year term as national data protection commissioner: while the criticism was not completely stilled, notably in respect of her alleged failure to give data protection issues a more prominent public profile, there were those who paid tribute to a succession of robust and legally sound data protection judgements handed down during her incumbency, and the expansion of the data-protection office under her watch.[2][3][4][5]