Bonn, 16th October 2023
Press release 17/2023
Berlin Group adopts working paper on telemetry
The International Working Group on Data Protection in Technology (IWGDPT), the so-called "Berlin Group," has adopted a working paper on telemetry under the chairmanship of the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI). The paper supports in particular manufacturers with practical recommendations to help design more privacy-friendly telemetry and diagnostic functions.
The BfDI, Professor Ulrich Kelber, emphasizes: Under the heading of telemetry, apps and operating systems often collect large amounts of personal data. Users are often not adequately informed and data protection principles such as purpose limitation and data minimization are not observed. In our working paper, we identify various problems and risks of telemetry functions and provide practical recommendations for privacy-compliant implementation.
Telemetry and diagnostic data are data collected by devices and apps around usage. For example, information about how often users utilize certain functions of an app or at what times. Even in seemingly harmless scenarios, personal data can quickly be affected, for example when data about system crashes is collected.
The IWGDPT calls on all stakeholders to be aware that the principles of data protection self-evidentyl also apply to telemetry and diagnostic data. With the practical recommendations from the working paper, the Berlin Group underlines that it is possible to implement these functions, which are important for quality assurance, in a privacy-compliant manner.
The Working Paper is available for download.