Data protection deficiencies at the Federal Employment Agency (BA) are far more serious than previously reported, daily Frankfurter Rundschau reported on Friday.
The agency has massive problems with a computer system in use across the nation, according to letters sent to the paper by BA staff councils, who called the situation dangerous to privacy laws, the paper said.
“Major concerns for social data protection” exist, according to one letter out of Hamburg, which said data from people seeking unemployment benefits included information on their addictions, debts, family and housing problems.
The computer system containing the information, called 4-PM, has garnered serious internal criticism for weeks because it can be accessed by some 100,000 workers at BA offices across the country, the paper said.
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