The Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) has published its activity report 2022/2023. The FDPIC is the Swiss data protection supervisory authority for federal bodies and private individuals. According to the FDPIC, the amended Swiss Data Protection Act (DPA), which will come into force on 1 September 2023, will intensify the supervisory activities of the FDPIC. On this date, a completely revised version of the DPA, including the enforcement decree, will enter into force, providing the economy, the federal administration, and the federal data protection supervisory authority with new tools to meet the population’s expectations for robust and constitutional protection of their privacy and informational self-determination in the digital reality.

Since the beginning of May 2023, the FDPIC has provided a new website whose content is aligned with the new DPA and will be continuously updated until it becomes effective. There is also access to two new online reporting portals: the processing directories of federal agencies (DataReg) and the portal for reporting data security breaches (DataBreach). According to the FDPIC’s press release, a third portal containing the directory of company data protection advisors will be released during the summer.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw numerous decisions taken under emergency law, and the bailout of the electricity industry, the Federal Council, in issuing the emergency ordinance to rescue Credit Suisse, has once again within a few months made administrative activities exempt from scrutiny under the Freedom of Information Act (FIA). The emergency exclusion of citizens’ rights of access guar-anteed by the FIA raises fundamental legal questions and has prompted the FDPIC to publish a list of all exemptions under specific federal acts in its annual report. The FDPIC emphasized that it will publish such a list on its website.