Data protection and doorbell labels – GDPR taken to the extreme?

Imagine you want to visit your Aunt Erna. You haven't been there for a while because she’s always complaining about her aches and pains. So, you finally pull yourself together, head over to her apartment building, and go to ring the bell – but Erna’s name is no longer on the buzzer. Just apartment numbers. Which floor does Erna live on again? Is this the perfect opportunity to skip visiting your distant relatives? Did you fail to find Aunt Erna because data protection got in the way?

Doorbell labels and data protection – incompatible?

Let’s rewind: In late 2018, a property management company in Vienna started unscrewing nameplates from the apartment buildings they managed. The supposed reason: GDPR and nameplates don’t mix. It would have been somewhat amusing if it hadn’t affected nearly a quarter of a million doorbells – and all because a single tenant had complained, citing the GDPR, that their name was visible to everyone on the doorbell panel. The property management company reacted without checking whether nameplates actually violated the GDPR – and triggered "Klingelgate" . The incident spilled over the border into Germany, where the largest German association of property owners made a high-profile move by bringing the country’s biggest tabloid on board, calling on none other than the federal government to please put an end to this – largely self-inflicted – doorbell data protection chaos.

The incident surrounding the supposedly GDPR-banned nameplates grew, further fueled by various tabloid newspapers. Perpetrator: GDPR, Victim: Nameplates, representing poor citizens who are being unfairly and unsolicitedly inconvenienced. Eventually, the EU Commission stepped in to clarify: Nameplates are not to be viewed as automated data processing and therefore the GDPR does not apply here. Long before the GDPR, tenants were already able to request that their names be removed from doorbells and replaced with an apartment number if they didn't want them displayed. As long as they remain reachable for their landlords, a nameless doorbell is not a problem. Following the statement from the EU Commission, the Berlin data protection authority recommended that new tenants could be offered the choice of having their name or their apartment number on a doorbell as a gesture of goodwill. But these practical suggestions were lost in the public debate – by then, the problem had become something entirely different.

On EU cucumbers and GDPR doorbells

The emotional debate had long since moved beyond the discussion about doorbell nameplates and focused on the GDPR itself, eventually escalating to the point where even various politicians weighed in. Konstantin von Notz, digital policy spokesperson for the Green Party, hit the nail on the head: "It is clearly a case of once again trying to unsettle people with such absurdities and railing against the new EU General Data Protection Regulation without any substance." Because, in fact, this doorbell incident is representative of the resentment toward the GDPR, much like the uproar back then over the cucumber regulation. In 1988, the EU established standards for the curvature of cucumbers; although these have not been in effect since 2009, they still serve as a go-to argument for those who love to bash the EU. The same is now true for the doorbell nameplates. Facts are unfortunately no longer of interest to many people here. Yet, a look at the positive innovations of the GDPR would be beneficial—after all, those who get worked up about the doorbell incident are usually the same people who worry about their personal data, which the GDPR is designed to protect. But since the GDPR was an EU invention, the fire is already burning among the usual grumblers, especially since the EU had already started that nonsense with the cucumbers.

We therefore advocate for a bit more background knowledge – and a little more composure. Why not visit Aunt Erna, have a liqueur with her, and chat about her aches and pains, which suddenly seem quite unimportant. You know where to ring now, anyway. After all, the name is back on the doorbell.