The Data Privacy Advisory Board, announced by CEO René Obermann in October 2008, met for its first meeting yesterday in Berlin. It will advise the Deutsche Telekom Board of Management on issues related to data privacy in future. The Data Privacy Advisory Board will promote the exchange of ideas and experience with leading data privacy experts and prominent figures from the worlds of politics, education, business and independent organizations concerning business models, processes and the handling of data within the Deutsche Telekom Group. Consultation will cover the handling of customer and employee data, data privacy audits, IT security and the introduction of new legal provisions. The Advisory Board will develop corresponding proposals and recommendations for the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom. Data protection measures will be assessed and criticism and suggestions for improvement made available to the Supervisory Board. The members of the Advisory Board intend to contribute to the implementation of exemplary data privacy standards in the company.
In addition, representatives of the Federal Network Agency, the Federal Data Protection Commissioner and the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) will be invited to the quarterly meetings of the Data Privacy Advisory Board. With the Data Privacy Advisory Board, an independent body, Deutsche Telekom has implemented another measure for the continual improvement of data privacy and increased transparency in the Group and opened its doors for expert external criticism. The Data Privacy Advisory Board will be informed of processes relevant to data privacy in future and will also pursue issues on its own initiative. Deutsche Telekom will be represented on the Advisory Board by Dr. Manfred Balz, Board of Management member responsible for Data Privacy, Legal Affairs and Compliance, amongst others. At the constituent meeting last Monday, the data privacy incidents at Deutsche Telekom and the measures introduced were presented and discussed and initial proposals were made for additional measures for further improvement of data privacy. The members of the Data Privacy Advisory Board are: Wolfgang Bosbach , member of the Bundestag, lawyer and Deputy Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group Dr. Michael Bürsch , member of the Bundestag, coordinator for data privacy affairs in the SPD parliamentary group since November Peter Franck , Chaos Computer Club (CCC) Prof. Dr. Hansjörg Geiger , Honorary Professor of Constitutional Law at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, and State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Justice from 1998 to 2005 Prof. Peter Gola , President of the German Association for Data Protection and Data Security (GDD) Bernd H. Harder , lawyer, member of the Executive Committee of BITKOM e.V. Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger , member of the Bundestag, lawyer, Deputy Chair of the FDP parliamentary group, and Federal Minister of Justice from 1992 to 1996 Dr. Gerhard Schäfer , Presiding Judge at the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), retired. Lothar Schröder , Chairman of the Data Privacy Advisory Board, member of the ver.di National Executive Board and Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom AG Silke Stokar , member of the Bundestag, spokesperson on internal affairs for B90/Die Grünen parliamentary group Dr. Peter Wedde , Professor of Labor Law and Law in the Information Society at the University of Applied Sciences, Frankfurt a.M.