Statistics secret
Under confidentiality of statistics refers to the obligation of secrecy , employees of Statistical Offices ( Federal Statistical Office , Statistical Offices , Statistics Offices in the municipalities) are subject.
Statistical confidentiality is the central foundation of the relations between statistical authorities and respondents. It is stipulated by law in Section 16 of the Federal Statistics Act (BStatG) and in the state statistics laws . For all official statistics in Germany, the central principle generally applies that the individual details of the respondents must be kept strictly confidential. The information is provided for statistical purposes only and may only be used for the purposes specified by law. A specific legal basis is required for all official statistics.
The strict application of statistical secrecy means that, apart from the employees of the statistical offices who are obliged to maintain confidentiality, no one finds out which individual data was collected from statistics. Personal information does not leave the sealed-off area of the Statistical Office, no other department within the same authority, no other authority, not even the tax office or the employment agency and no other persons, such as relatives or neighbors, learn anything about the data.
All requested data must be evaluated anonymously, survey documents must be destroyed after processing has been completed. When publishing statistical results, it must be ruled out that conclusions can be drawn about individual persons or companies that are obliged to provide information. The smallest unit that may be used for the regional allocation of the survey characteristics is the block page for federal statistics ( Section 10 (2) BStatG). Names and addresses must be deleted as soon as possible.