• Home /
• Statewatch Database /
• Denmark:New university security scandal (1)

Denmark:New university security scandal (1)

01 January 1991

Denmark:New university security scandal
artdoc July=1994

In March it was revealed that over a ten year period, ending in
1991, the names, addresses and identity numbers of about 40,000
students at Copenhagen University were illegally given to the
Police Intelligence Service (PET).
Lars-Erik Allin, the Legal Advisor to the University Rector,
was responsible for security matters until the exposure of his
involvement in the first security scandal at the university (the
bugging case, see Statewatch vol 4 no 1). Then when he met the
new Rector, K M?llgärd, in January this year he revealed the
wholesale passing of information on students to the PET. The
Rector said this was ` an unacceptable break in the confidence
that any student must have in the university's way of handling
personal information in a responsible way'.
Prior to the Law on Data Protection (Registerlovgivningen)
passed in 1982 lists of students were publicly available, the
effect of this law however made the handing over of lists
illegal.
The head of PET, Birgette Stampe, told the press that the lists
had been used for investigation purposes to confirm peoples'
identity and was the same as the telephone book! Confronted with
the fact that identity numbers are not in the phone book she
replied that PET has access to identity files anyway.
Law Professor, Vagn Greve, of the Institute of Criminology at
the University has been asked by the Rector to investigate the
matter.
Information, 5 & 6.3.94.

Statewatch, vol 4 no 3, May-June 1994