Bearer of secrets
The holder of a secret is the person to whom a secret has been entrusted or has otherwise become known. There must be a basis of trust between the person who is telling the secret and who is keeping the secret, as the person who is telling the secret wants to be sure that what is entrusted is not passed on.
One becomes a carrier of secrets not only on the communicative level, but also by perceiving an action (e.g. observing a crime, etc.).
In the professional, governmental and political area, confidentiality carriers are persons who, due to their area of responsibility, have access to secret or confidential information, for which confidentiality regulations must be observed or who are subject to an obligation of confidentiality or confidentiality. Which professions have to observe a special duty of confidentiality results in many cases from Section 203 of the Criminal Code , which penalizes the violation of this duty under criminal law. This corresponds to professional regulations, e.g. for lawyers ( Section 43a BRAO ), notaries ( Section 18 BNotO ), tax advisors ( Section 57 Paragraph 1 and Section 62 StBerG ) or auditors ( Section 43 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 and Section 50 WiPrO ) for certain employees of public bodies (cf. the registration secret according to § 5 Abs. 1 BMG or the statistical secret according to § 16 Abs. 1 BStatG ) as well as for persons involved in certain activities (see letter, post and telecommunications secrecy). Numerous other legal provisions constitute or refer to a professional secret, e.g. B. §§ 1 Paragraph 3 Sentence 2 and 42a Sentence 1 No. 3 BDSG , § 102 AO , § 47 Paragraph 2 Sentence 1 No. 5 GwG , § 57 Paragraph 4 No. 1 Letter k WiPrO , § 11a para. 8 sentence 1 GewO and others. The same applies to standards that speak of confidentiality such as B. Section 309 VAG . A complete listing of the legally regulated professional, official and official secrets is hardly possible.
Special duties also apply to military and police official secrets . Violations in the public service can be punished by disciplinary and criminal law . In Germany, the criminal offense of treason is particularly relevant. The Security Review Act (SÜG) contains special regulations for access to classified information .
In addition to individual professions and positions (e.g. legal persons or authorities) as well as employees who are co-obliged under labor, service or data protection law (cf. e.g. data secrecy according to Section 5 BDSG old version), other third parties can also be secret carriers, obtain knowledge of facts or circumstances that trigger a duty of confidentiality, cf. e.g. the adoption secrecy regulated in § 1758 BGB .
Precautions are taken if necessary through observation, surveillance and security measures.
See also
- Official secret
- Legal confidentiality
- Security clearance law
- State secret
- Classified information
- Confidentiality