City of Berne data protection commissioner does not want WhatsApp in schools
Last year, the data protection officer of the city of Bern intervened with the city's education authority because of the popular messaging service. She came to the conclusion that WhatsApp could not be used for school purposes in accordance with data protection regulations. This was because address data was transmitted to the USA.
According to the 2021 activity report of the city of Berne's ombudsman and data protection office published this week, the data protection commissioner had been asked whether a teacher in the city of Berne was allowed to use WhatsApp as a class chat.
The person seeking advice from the data protection office raised the issue in connection with the adjusted terms and conditions of the application.
The data protection officer subsequently carried out clarifications. She also came to the conclusion that the consent of all persons in a chat group was not sufficient for the use of WhatsApp to comply with data protection requirements. This is because all data of the persons listed in the telephone directory would be transmitted to the Whatsapp operator.
Following the intervention of the data protection commissioners, all head teachers in the city of Berne received instructions that WhatsApp should no longer be used for class chats or parent communications at their schools. Better, they said, was the more data-protection-friendly app "Mattermost".
"Generally lived practice"
As the secretary general of the City of Berne's Education, Social Affairs and Sports Directorate, Sven Baumann, said on Thursday in response to a question, this intervention by the city's data protection officers is being implemented. "This is generally lived practice," Baumann said. Whatsapp chats would no longer be used.
The cantonal Department of Education and Culture (BKD) stated in response to an inquiry that it does not prescribe to schools which messenger services they should use. No personal data may be exchanged via the messenger services. "We recommend that messenger services be used exclusively for organizational information," the BKD wrote.
More cases at both agencies
The ombudsman's office of the City of Bern defines itself as an independent and neutral point of contact for citizens, but also for employees of the city and its companies. In the year under review, it handled a total of 647 cases and inquiries (previous year 610). The number of whistleblowing cases almost doubled from six to eleven.
The number of personnel cases remained at a high level, according to the activity report. There were 46, compared to 42 in the previous year. The reason for the increase is probably the city's cost-cutting measures and the pandemic situation, it says.
The Data Supervisory Authority is committed to the responsible handling of information. Last year, it handled 157 cases and inquiries (previous year: 133). In the activity report, both offices use several examples to show why they are called upon and how they proceed.
The ombudsman's office became active, for example, when a resident of the city of Bern did not want to participate in the counting of votes on an election weekend because of fear of corona infection. She had been asked to do so by the city administration and turned to the ombudsman's office. (SDA)
