Vodafone manager Hannes Ametsreiter wants to use cell phone data more to fight pandemics.
The Germany boss of the telephone company Vodafone suggests using cellular data more to combat the corona pandemic. Data protection does not currently allow this, said Austrian Hannes Ametsreiter to the news magazine “Der Spiegel”.
In view of the current number of cases on this point, he was wondering “whether we shouldn't jump over our shadow now,” the manager said according to an advance notice.
“Mobility data can help to cope with the crisis faster and better – so you should consider whether you could use it better,” emphasized Ametsreiter. “The big decisions in a pandemic should be made on the basis of as good and extensive a database as possible.”
He knows the system from Austria and thinks it is an approach worth thinking about. “You could draw conclusions about the mobility of certain groups of people or in certain areas,” said Ametsreiter. This could be used, for example, to track how travelers from risk countries had moved.
“Few problems” with anonymized data
He does not want to undermine data protection: As long as the data is passed on anonymously and no identities are disclosed, he sees “many advantages and few problems”.
Ametsreiter also speaks out in the “Spiegel” for a debate about a more far-reaching approach: “Personalized data would be a far-reaching step, but one should be able to think and talk about that.
Such restrictions of the current legal situation should be debatable – if that brings us back other freedoms sooner. “
The 54-year-old was critical of the German Corona warning app, which was co-developed by the Vodafone competitor Deutsche Telekom: It offers “in principle good opportunities – but the technological options should also be exhausted”.