Democracy - Im Rausch der Daten

Not only since the revelations by Edward Snowden should it have become clear to the last that the World Wide Web has long since turned its users into transparent people. In almost all areas of our daily lives we are now online. Whether it's fitness, watching TV or even brushing our teeth - there's an app, a USB connection or other gadgets for everything, which at first glance are supposed to make our lives easier, but at second glance make total surveillance of every single step possible. Since for most people a life without smartphones, smart TVs and the Internet is no longer conceivable, a certain degree of privacy protection must of course also be possible on the web. This is a logical consequence in itself. It's just too bad that information about users, their buying and surfing behaviour is an extremely lucrative commodity in which powerful economic groups have a great interest.

Can the protection of the individual and the power of lobbyists, privacy and economic interests be reconciled? In recent years, the conservative EU Commissioner Viviane Reding and the Green MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht (MEP) had to experience how difficult this is. Their task was to bring about a European data protection law that would protect all forms of data transfer. They were accompanied by filmmaker David Bernet, who captured the battle for online security in his documentary Democracy - Im Rausch der Daten. Albrecht was elected negotiator for this legislative process in the European Parliament, which makes him an extremely exciting protagonist. Because the fact that it is not a politician who is particularly friendly to industry, but a young, idealistic politician for whom civil rights are more important than the interests of lobbyists, who leads the negotiations as rapporteur is a minor sensation and makes conflict almost inevitable.

The film shows very impressively how much effort goes into creating a legislative text, how much fighting goes on over the smallest formulations and how much of one's own ideals one has to give up in order to ultimately reach a satisfactory compromise. In the process, Bernet allows representatives of the most diverse views to have their say: Net activists who see in the technological development a never-ending attack on civil rights and also lobbyists who are convinced that they can improve the world with Big Data. The result is an exciting dispute that viewers can continue after the film ends.

The problem with the documentary is that it follows a process that is lengthy, unwieldy, factual, dry and also extremely frustrating. Being able to look behind the scenes of the European Parliament and follow the many facets of a law-making process, while interesting in some ways, is not necessarily the stuff of exciting cinematic entertainment. Those interested in politics should definitely watch the film, as it impressively shows how important compromises can be, even if they sometimes hurt. But it is enough to wait for the home cinema release or the TV broadcast of the film, which was made in cooperation with ARTE, SWR and Norddeutscher Rundfunk. Therefore: Exciting and important topic, very factually and therefore also very dryly converted and therefore only for really interested spectators worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp