Dr. Dix was elected Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information by the Berlin State Parliament in June 2005. Previously he had been Commissioner in the State of Brandenburg for seven years. A specialist in telecommunications and media, Dr. Dix has 23 years of working experience in the field of data protection and has dealt with a number of issues regarding the cross-border protection of citizen's privacy. He chairs the International Working Group on Data Protection in Telecommunications ("Berlin Group") and is a member of the Art. 29 Working Party of European Data Protection Supervisory Authorities. In this Working Party, Dr. Dix represents the Data Protection Authorities of the 16 German States (Länder).