15.11.2020
09:46
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Dispute over personal data: Check24 blocks requests from Itsmydata
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Munich – The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides material for a dispute about companies ‘obligations to provide information about their customers’ personal data. The Comparison portal Check24 blocks all requests for information made by users of the also in Munich resident start-ups come to Itsmydata. Itsmydata sees this as a violation of the obligations that the GDPR imposes on all companies.
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Check24 ignores the user requests from Itsmydata. © Matthias Balk / dpa
“According to GDPR Paragraph 15 or 20, all companies are obliged to answer a customer’s data request or to provide information,” argue the two Itsmydata managing directors Alexander Sieverts and Michael Giese.
The portal in turn rejects this: “Check24 received a large number of random and repeated inquiries via Itsmydata GmbH that could not be traced back to Check24 customers,” says a spokesman. “So we stopped working with Itsmydata.”
The conflict illustrates both the pitfalls of the regulation and the importance that user data has gained in business life.
Personal data is in great demand. It is not only difficult for consumers to find out which company knows what about them. There is also a quarrel among companies: insurers fear that car manufacturers could monopolize the large amount of data that modern cars transmit.
Because even car data reveals a lot about the preferences of their drivers. And if you know more about customers, you can sell them things and services more easily, according to the standard marketing tenet.
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Itsmydata and Check24 are fighting over user data
Check24 is a comparison portal. © Matthias Balk / dpa
The General Data Protection Regulation is intended to empower citizens in this regard: companies must provide information about stored personal data, and inquiries may also be made by service providers.
Itsmydata makes use of this, which sends a bundled request to more than 100 companies on behalf of its users, including credit agencies such as Schufa or Boniversum. The start-up’s source of income is the sale of creditworthiness certificates.
This means that Check24 also receives inquiries from people who have never bought insurance or booked a trip on the portal.
“Every Check24 customer who inquires directly with us also receives his personal data information,” emphasized the spokesman.
According to Article 12 GDPR, however, companies can reject requests if they are manifestly unfounded or excessive.
Check24 refers to this in the conflict with Itsmydata. “Check24 also has the duty to verify the identity of the inquiring person and is not allowed to provide indefinite third parties with personal data of potential customers,” says the spokesman.
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Itsmydata founder: Check24 is the only company that goes against it
The Itsmydata founders Giese and Sieverts, in turn, point out that every user has their own account and from there as a private person can send their personal data request. “The fact that Check24 has paralyzed all access via Itsmydata because allegedly too many non-customers have made ‘unauthorized’ requests is a scandal for individuals who legitimately want to request their data according to the GDPR, but are no longer allowed to use Check24,” says Giese.
According to management, Itsmydata users can currently query their data at a good 100 companies; except at Check24 there are no problems.
A few years ago, Check24 was still a start-up itself and is now a large company that sells a million car insurance policies every year.
The company is also familiar with disputes over data in the other direction: for example, the insurance company HUK Coburg and Check24 had several lawsuits against each other in recent years. Among other things, the HUK had the portal prohibited from using its company logo in insurance comparisons.
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Cover photo: Matthias Balk / dpa
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