2010 (PDF, 1.1 MB) - Schufa

Prof Dr Winfried Hassemer
was State Commissioner for
Data Protection in Hesse
from 1991 to 1996, and was
appointed as a judge in the
Second Division of the Federal
Constitutional Court
in Karlsruhe in May 1996.
From 2002 to 2008, he
served as Chairman of the
Second Senate and was
Vice-President of the Federal
Constitutional Court. He
has been the ombudsman
of SCHUFA Holding AG
since 1 July 2010.
SCHUFA doesn’t create data, consumers do
Institution reports 17
Professor Hassemer, as SCHUFA’s ombudsman, what is your overall
impression of their activities?
The conversations and correspondence I am involved in clearly show that
many people do not understand what SCHUFA does. They know that our
economy needs reliable and fast information about creditworthiness in
individual cases, and agree with it, but the specific calculations are still
incomprehensible to many, and some believe the retention periods are
too long. Also the fact that it is not SCHUFA that creates the data, but
consumers themselves, is not always clear. There’s still a long way to go.
In your opinion, what needs to be done?
In my role as ombudsman, I want to bring clarity to the SCHUFA process
and refute the misconceptions people have about the legal situation.
SCHUFA cannot, for example, verify the extent to which contracts between
consumers and contractors have been legally closed. It can only determine
whether the conditions are right for transmitting their information
to SCHUFA.
Do you have a recommendation for consumers?
Recently, SCHUFA has greatly increased the consumers’ ability to access
information easily and quickly so that they can request and find out more
information on the nature and details of SCHUFA’s work as well as the
results of individual cases. Consumers should take greater advantage of
these opportunities in order to obtain better insight – particularly in the
case of complex relationships and transactions.