che Wochenschrift 2007, p. 2464 (2466)).
The endangerments of personality to be averted with the right to informational selfdetermination emerge from the manifold possibilities open to the state, and where appropriate also to private players (see Federal Constitutional Court, Order of the 1st
Chamber of the First Senate of 23 October 2006 – 1 BvR 2027/02 –, Juristenzeitung
2007, p. 576) to collect, process and use personal data. Such information may lead to
the creation of further information, above all using electronic data processing, and to
conclusions which may both impair the interests of the person concerned in confidentiality, which are protected by fundamental rights, and entail encroachments on his or
her freedom of conduct (see BVerfGE 65, 1 (42); 113, 29 (45-46); 115, 320 (342);
Federal Constitutional Court, Order of 13 June 2007 – 1 BvR 1550/03 et al. –, Neue
Juristische Wochenschrift 2007, p. 2464 (2466)).
199
However, the right to informational self-determination does not fully consider elements of personality endangerments which emerge from the fact that the individual
relies on the use of information technology systems for his or her personality development, and in such instances entrusts personal data to the system or inevitably provides such data already by using the system. A third party accessing such a system
can obtain data stocks which are potentially extremely large and revealing without
having to rely on further data collection and data processing measures. In its severity
for the personality of the person concerned, such access goes beyond individual data
collections against which the right to informational self-determination provides protection.
200
d) Insofar as no adequate protection exists against endangerments of the personality emerging from the individual relying on the use of information technology systems
for his or her personality development, the general right of personality accounts for
the need for protection in its loophole-filling function over and above its manifestations recognised thus far by virtue of the fact that it guarantees the integrity and confidentiality of information technology systems. In the same way as the right to informational self-determination, this right is based on Article 2.1 in conjunction with Article
1.1 of the Basic Law; it protects the personal and private life of the subjects of the fundamental rights against access by the state in the area of information technology also
insofar as the state has access to the information technology system as a whole, and
not only to individual communication events or stored data.
201
aa) However, not all information technology systems which are able to create,
process or store personal data require the special protection of a separate guarantee
of personality rights. Insofar as such a system by its technical construction only contains data with a partial connection to a certain area of life of the person concerned –
for instance non-networked electronic control systems in household appliances –,
state access to the existing data is no different in qualitative terms than other data collections. In such a case, the protection of the right to informational self-determination
is sufficient to guarantee the justified interests of the person concerned in confiden-
202
32/60