Without consent: Schufa & Co. evaluate mobile phone contracts

As Tagesschau.de reports, credit agencies all over Germany have been collecting mobile phone contract data from citizens in this country for decades. The companies therefore not only have information about the number of current mobile phone contracts, they also know which person has stayed with a provider for how long. Among other things, you can use it to provide information on whether a customer remains loyal to his provider for a long time or changes frequently. A circumstance that is now calling data protectionists and the Federal Association of Consumers (VZBV) on the scene.-

Schufa & Co. violate GDPR

The latter criticizes that the processing of such information is highly opaque and makes people transparent. Cellular service providers could deny a person a contract because they regularly change providers and thus seem to be a potentially bad customer. According to the report, there is even more severe criticism from data protection experts. Since the credit agencies collect the mobile phone contract data without the explicit consent of the users, the procedure has violated applicable law at the latest since the introduction of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) from 2018.

State data protection officers also complain that the credit bureaus kept their actions secret for a long time. It was therefore often not at all clear to citizens that their creditworthiness could be influenced by their mobile phone behavior. The industry association “Die Wirtschaftsauskunfteien” defends the business conduct on the other hand. It is a decade-long, uncontested practice from which some people would even benefit.

Credit bureaus see advantages for the financially weak

For example, with the help of cell phone contracts, companies could provide information about financially weak people for whom no other creditworthiness data was available because they have never taken out a loan. Those who regularly pay their cell phone bills could therefore pass as creditworthy. Consumer and data protection activists do not want to accept this argument and are calling for the data collected to be deleted. It remains to be seen whether the credit reporting agencies will comply with this requirement or whether a court will have to clarify the matter.