Data protection scandal in the diocese of Münster: Affected people demand justice!

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Datenschutzverletzung im Bistum Münster: Daten einer missbrauchsbetroffenen Person wurden unzureichend anonymisiert. Entschädigung angeboten.
Data protection injury in the diocese of Münster: Data from a person affected by the abuse were insufficiently anonymized. Compensation offered. (Symbolbild/ANAG)

The diocese of Münster has given a significant data protection injury in connection with a abuse study. Personal data from a data subject were sent to the University of Münster without the legal basis. This was announced by the diocese on April 1, 2025. As part of an independent examination, which was carried out on sexualized violence within the diocese from 2019 to 2022, the data occurred inadequate, which led to a formal complaint.

According to the information from Domradio , the diocese has accepted the decisions of the church data protection court in Bonn and the Catholic data protection center in Dortmund. A data subject had complained about the defective anonymization of the data. Finally, the data protection court found that not only basic data such as the name and address, but also personal descriptions had to be made unrecognizable.

reactions and excuses

The diocese of Münster apologized to the person concerned and offered a compensation payment. This gesture comes after the publication of the study in June 2022, as a result, the data subject submitted their complaint to the Catholic data protection supervision. This concluded in June 2023 that the transmission of partially anonymized files significantly violated the rights of the data subject, so reports

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The Diocese of Münster, with around 1.63 million Catholics the largest in Germany, extends over an area of ​​15,000 square kilometers and is divided into five regions, with four of them being in North Rhine-Westphalia and one in Lower Saxony.

In order to ensure transparency, scientists and the diocese had decided to pass on the data, which has now proven to be a data protection injury. Alternatives such as cover letters to all those affected for consent were rejected to avoid retraumatization. The advisory board of the research project, in which several people are also represented, had advised the procedure beforehand.

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