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Personal data - Change of name at marriage

Updated printUdskriv

Content

Purpose of processing personal data
Data Controller and Data Processor
The Data Protection Officer
What personal data is processed?
How long is your data stored?
Laws and regulations
  Your rights as a data subject
Complaints about the processing of personal data

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Purpose of processing personal data

The purpose of processing your or your (future) spouse's personal data is so that you or your (future) spouse can change your name in connection with a wedding ceremony and that the new name can be registered in the Danish CPR-register.

Data Controller and Data Processor

The parish where the applicant of the name change resides is the processing authority and is thus the data controller for the processing of the personal data.

If the applicant for the name change is not resided in Denmark, and a Danish authority is to process the application for a name change, it is the parish where the name change applicant last resided that is the processing authority and data controller for the processing of the personal data. 

If the applicant for the name change is registered as born in the Southern part of Jutland, it is the municipality in the Southern part of Jutland where birth is registered that is the processing authority and data controller for the processing of the personal data. 

In some cases, the processing and data responsibility is transferred to the Agency of Family Law, cf. section 16 subparagraph 3 in the Act on Names. 

The Ministry of Health and Ecclesiastical Affairs and the authorities that use the Ministry's joint systems have joint data responsibility for the processing of personal data when the processing takes place within the Ministry of Health and Ecclesiastical Affairs' remit, cf. Cirkulære om fælles dataansvar', no. 9447 of June 15, 2021.

The data processor of the Danish National Church is DXC Technology.

The Data Protection Officer

Questions about an authority under the Ministry of Health and Ecclesiastical Affairs processing of your personal data can be made by contacting the Data Protecting Officer in the Ministry of Health and Ecclesiastical Affairs':

Senior Consultant Rasmus Paaske Larsen 
Tel.: 3392 3390 
E-mail: databeskyttelsesraad@km.dk

By letter: Ministry of Health and Ecclesiastical Affairs, Frederiksholms Kanal 21, 1220 Copenhagen K, Attn.: The Data Protection Officer.

Enquiries to other authorities' data protection officers should be directed to the relevant authority.

What personal data is processed?

The authority processes the following information about you as an applicant for a name change:

  • Civil registration number or date of birth, if you do not have a civil registration number
  • Name and desired name
  • Attachment to desired names
  • Citizenship
  • Country of birth
  • Address, postcode, city
  • Phone number
  • E-mail address

The authority processes the following information about your (future) spouse:

  • Civil registration number or date of birth, if you do not have a civil registration number
  • Name

The authority also processes information about the place and date of your wedding.

How long is your data stored?

  • According to ‘Cirkulære om aflevering og kassation af kirkebogsarkivalier’ no. 227 of December 5, 1975, an application for a change of name in connection with a marriage that is approved or rejected by the administrative authority is stored for 30 years. The application is then deleted, anonymised or transferred to the archive in accordance with the rules of the archive legislation.
  • A digital application for a name change at a wedding, that does not reach the processing authority due to technical issues, is stored in the system for 6 months, after which it is deleted.  

An example of technical issues may be that a digital application for a name change at a wedding is not finally signed before the deadline, or if the applicant for the name change does not have a registered address in Denmark.

Laws and regulations

The application for a name change is processed according to the following rules:

The processing takes place based on Article 6(1)(c) and (e) of the General Data Protection Regulation on legal obligations and the exercise of public authority, cf. The Consolidated Act on Names, § 1, § 2, and cf. Section 16 subparagraph 1 of the Act on Names. 

Processing of civil registration numbers takes place based on section 11, subparagraph 1 of the Danish Data Protection Act. 

Processing of sensitive data (religious affiliation) takes place based on Article 9, subparagraph 2(g) of the General Data Protection Regulation on the exercise of public authority in the public interest, cf. Section 16 of the Marriage Act.

No automated decision-making or profiling is used in connection with the processing.

The processing authority may obtain relevant information from other authorities if this is necessary for the processing of the application.

You can read more about the regulatory framework here:

Your rights as a data subject

You have the following rights under the General Data Protection Regulation:

  • Right of access to the data that the authority in question processes about you.
  • The right to have your information corrected in certain cases if it proves to be incorrect or misleading.
  • The right to object to the authority's otherwise lawful processing of your data.
  • The right, in certain cases, to have information about you deleted before the date of the authority's otherwise specified deletion occurs.
  • The right to transmit information (data portability) does not apply to an application for a change of name in connection with a marriage, as the processing takes place as part of an exercise of public authority that the data controller has been assigned by law.

You can read more about your rights in the 'Danish Data Protection Agency's guidance on the rights of data subjects'.

If you want to exercise your rights, including requesting access to the processing of your data or the data of the deceased by the processing authority, you must contact the relevant authority. 
You can find contact information on borger.personregistrering.dk.

Complaints about the processing of personal data

You have the right to complain about the data controller's processing of your personal data to the Danish Data Protection Agency in accordance with the rules in Article 77 of the General Data Protection Regulation.

You can contact the Danish Data Protection Agency from your digital mailbox on borger.dk or by e-mail to dt@datatilsynet.dk.