Corona Crisis: So you object to making your location data public

Motion profile

March 30, 2020, 4:19 pm Reading time: Two minutes

To deal with the corona crisis in an effective way, phone providers are currently sharing their customers' mobile data with government agencies. But, just like in Germany, many citizens are angry at transferring data anonymously. So we explained how to prevent data transmission.



Restriction of mobility is one of the core resources against the coronavirus. As the current survey shows, appropriate measures are being taken effectively in many places. In order to better evaluate the measures [and possibly adjust them], Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone are currently sharing the transaction data of their contract customers anonymously with government agencies.

This is a rough summary of the data, based on the radio mast connected to the mobile customer phone. If the phone changes the mast, the mobile operator will register it as a change of location. However, precise location information cannot be collected in this way-because the area covered by each phone pole ranges from hundreds of meters to several kilometers.

Coronavirus: how to make Staythefuckathome more enjoyable

After Telekom first started transmitting the relevant data to the Robert Koch Institute, many network providers across Europe have now agreed to transmit relevant mobile data to the European Commission. This is intended to facilitate the harmonization of European protection measures against the virus.

Can be manually exited

If you are one of the people who disagree with anonymous data transmission, the legislature can object. This does not explicitly involve data transmission in the event of a corona crisis. Instead, the provider normally sells the data in question commercially to paying customers.

Opposition to data transmission was raised in Telekom using online forms. Telefonica / o2 also filed online objections. Vodafone lacks this form. Here, the objection can be sent to the company in writing.

Broader resources in other countries

By the way, location data is widely used in Asia and Israel in the fight against coronavirus. You can track people in contact with Corona employees, partly on a voluntary basis and partly without citizen participation, which should enable them to be effectively isolated. For example, in Singapore, citizens are free to install a smartphone application that can keep a log of contacts and transfer them to government agencies in the event of an infection.