Former employee of the IIWR becomes new Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information

Professor Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider, who worked at the Institute for Information and Business Law at the KIT Faculty of Computer Science from 2009-2012 and 2014-2015, is to become the new Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information from summer 2024. The 39-year-old will succeed Ulrich Kelber. This was agreed by representatives of the traffic light coalition, as confirmed by the FDP federal parliamentary group on Monday, April 15, 2024.

Specht-Riemenschneider completed her doctorate and habilitation after studying under Professor Thomas Dreier (KIT-ZAR) on information law issues before she was appointed to the Chair of European and International Data and Information Law at the University of Passau in 2017. Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider received the "Dieter Meurer Prize for Legal Informatics" in 2017 for her habilitation thesis "Diktat der Technik - Rematerialisierung der Privatautonomie im informationstechnologischen Umfeld". Most recently, she was Professor of Civil Law and Data Law at the University of Bonn. She is already well known in politics: Among other things, as Chair of the Expert Council for Consumer Affairs at the Federal Ministry for the Environment.

It is not yet clear when she will take over as head of the Bonn authority. The top data protection officer is appointed by the Federal Government and then elected by the Bundestag. The date of the election is not yet known.