What is informational self-determination, and what does data protection actually protect?

Informational self-determination is the fundamental right to decide who may process what information about you, for what reasons, and when.

Data protection protects the fundamental right to informational self-determination (informationelle Selbstbestimmung). This means: everyone can fundamentally determine who, for what reasons, when, and what information about them may be processed.

Three key clarifications about data protection:

1. It's person protection, not data protection. The law protects the people behind the data, not the data itself. A leaked database isn't a problem because the data is "harmed," it's a problem because the people in it are put at risk.

2. Primarily natural persons. Data protection primarily covers natural persons (real people), though in some legal contexts it also extends to legal entities (companies).

3. Control over your own data is a fundamental right. The freedom to decide about the processing of your own data is treated as a constitutional right in many jurisdictions, including Switzerland and the EU.