Necessary Processing of Personal Data: The Need-to-Know Principle and Processing Data from the New German Identity Card

The new German electronic identity card will allow service providers to access personal data stored on the card. This imposes a new quality of data processing as these data have been governmentally verified. According to European privacy legislation any data processing must be justified in the sense that the personal data are necessary for the stipulated purpose. This need-toknow principle is a legal requirement for accessing the data stored on the eID card. This text suggests a model as basis for deriving general guidelines and aids further discussion on the question whether collecting personal data is necessary for certain business cases. Beyond the scope of the German eID card the extent and boundaries of what can be accepted as necessary data processing poses questions on a European level as well.1