Legally sound AI use, held to a data protection expert's standard

For more than 20 years, Stephan Hansen-Oest has advised companies exclusively on data protection law, and through his platform Datenschutz-Guru and regular talks at industry conferences he is one of the best-known voices in the German data protection scene. Anyone who assesses every day whether companies work cleanly under data protection law will inevitably apply the same standard to their own tools.

For the use of AI in his own firm, this meant: before a tool was even considered, it had to be clear what happens to the information entered, who has access to it and whether a provider meets the special requirements that apply to professionals bound by secrecy. Convenience or range of functions were secondary for him as long as these basic questions were unanswered.

This stance matches what he himself describes as the central challenge for companies using AI: many are only just trying out how topics such as confidentiality and the handling of sensitive information can be reconciled with AI in everyday work. He did not want to go through this process as a test subject, but to start on a vetted basis from the outset.

Hansen-Oest approached the review of Logicc with the same systematic approach he otherwise applies to clients: first the legal fundamentals, then the product. An agreement compliant with § 203 StGB and Zero Data Retention were not nice-to-haves for him but a prerequisite for a tool to be used in his firm at all. Only once these points were clarified did he open up to the platform's actual range of functions.

What convinced him there above all was that he is not tied to a single AI model. Depending on the task, he can choose between different models or use automatic selection via Smart Select AI, which independently routes suitable requests to the right model. For a lawyer who relies heavily on precision in daily work but also likes to compare different results, it is exactly this flexibility that makes the difference.

This is complemented by the option to set up custom AI assistants with individual system prompts and so prepare recurring tasks in a targeted way.

Choose model Smart Select AIchooses automatically GPT-5.6 TerraOpenAIClaude Sonnet 5AnthropicGemini 3.5 FlashGoogleMistral MediumMistral

Because the legal fundamentals were right from the start, Hansen-Oest can now concentrate on the actual work instead of reassessing with every use of AI whether it is compatible with his professional duties. For him, Logicc has thus become not a side project but a firm part of his everyday law firm work, with custom assistants that he adapts as needed and a choice of models with which he experiments in a targeted way.

His approach also gives other professionals bound by secrecy a pattern for their own decision-making: do not evaluate range of functions or ease of use first, but ask whether a provider meets your own confidentiality requirements. Only when this basis is right is it worth looking at what a tool can actually do in day-to-day work.

Requirements for a providerConfidentiality under § 203 StGBNo storage at the model providerNo training with client dataData stays in GermanyFree choice of model

What Logicc meets Agreement under § 203 StGB included Zero Data Retention on every model request Contractually excluded Hosting in Germany, processing in the EU Leading models and Smart Select AI