Spying allegations
July 4, 2009
Spiegel magazine reports that Deutsche Bank hired an outside detective to spy on a former representative of German workers' union ver.di, who had been active on the company's board. Deutsche Bank suspected Gerald Herrmann of providing news agency Reuters with financial figures from the 2001 third quarter.
Spiegel says that in 2006, Deutsche Bank also spied on members of the company's board, who it suspected of having links to German media entrepreneur Leo Kirch. It's alleged that detectives put together profiles on board members' movements and scrutinized when, and with whom, they met.
Spiegel says its information comes from an internal review of the bank's practices, which is set to be presented to Germany's financial watchdog BaFin, which is also undertaking its own review. Deutsche Bank has so far refused to comment, and says it will wait until BaFin has seen the report.
The report follows allegations in May that Deutsche Bank spied on senior bank managers, and on people outside the company.
Government crackdown
The Spiegel report comes after the German parliament changed federal law on Friday to strengthen the protection of personal data of both company employees and consumers.
The measures became necessary after a number of spying scandals at several major German institutions, including communications giant Deutsche Telekom, national railways operator Deutsche Bahn, and discount supermarket chain Lidl.
Under the new law, the use of personal addresses has been limited but not banned altogether. Aid organisations are exempted from the restrictions to allow them to directly contact potential donors. Data is also still allowed to be sold to companies for advertising purposes if the origin of the information is clear.
In addition, the Bundestag passed a law on auditing companies' data protection practices to safeguard employees' personal data – but companies are not forced to comply as the regulation is not compulsory.
ca/dpa/AP
Editor: Andreas Illmer