Since 2015 Marit Hansen has been the State Data Protection Commissioner of Land Schleswig-Holstein and Chief of Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz (ULD). Before being appointed Data Protection Commissioner, she had been Deputy Commissioner for seven years. Since her diploma in computer science in 1995 Marit has been working on privacy and security aspects. Her focus is on “data protection by design” and “data protection by default” from both the technical and the legal perspectives. She often gives talks and has been lecturing at various universities and academies. 
Marit was member of the Data Ethics Commission of the German Government. Her contribution to education and research on privacy-enhancing technologies has awarded her an honorary doctorate from Karlstad University, Sweden.