Data graveyard: 14.5 million euro fine

Data graveyard: 14.5 million euro fine

The German-based real estate company Deutsches Wohnen SE stored a lot of personal data. However, it had not previously checked whether the storage was permitted, nor whether the data was still needed at all. The data protection authority came across the old archive system, which does not provide for the possibility of deleting data, back in 2015. At that time, she advised the company with suggestions for improvement. However, in 2019, the real estate company still had not set any measures. While there was evidence of preparations, those preparations did not remedy the unlawful retention of the data.

It was even possible in some cases for tenants of the 165,000 residential units and 2700 commercial spaces to access data from previous tenants.

Due to the unlawful storage of the data and the fact that the company did nothing to remedy the situation for over four years, an administrative fine of 14.5 million euros was imposed. Data graveyards unfortunately occur frequently, according to the Berlin data protection commissioner. These piles of data are no longer needed, but are still stored. This is a violation of the GDPR. All data must be deleted immediately as soon as it is no longer needed.

Entscheidungsdatum:
01.03.2019

Land:
Germany

Art des Verstoßes:
technical deficiency

Betroffene Datensätze:
unknown

Waren sensible Daten betroffen?:
No

verhängte Geldstrafe:
€ 14,500,000,-

Quelle:
Press release of the Berlin State Data Protection Commissioner