Digital voting tools: Compliant and on schedule

There are many live polling toolsthat can quickly help a large number of people find a meeting time. The most well-known of these is likely the one from the Swiss company Doodle AG. But what about data protection and Doodle? Is Doodle GDPR-compliant? And what is the general state of data protection for online polling tools—do they protect personal data?

Data protection: Doodle & Co. don't always perform well

The whole team is working from home and you want to set up a meeting quickly—a digital polling toolcan help with this. Do you use Doodle like the majority of live polling tool users? This can become a problem in terms of data protection, as Doodle does not operate in full compliance with data protection regulations. The main points of criticism are:

• Transfer of personal data:
  Even if you use Doodle without registering, personal data is often generated when using the service, such as participant names or personalized email addresses. If this is the case, the scope of the GDPR generally applies to companies. All this data is automatically stored on Doodle AG's servers when using the tool. This constitutes the storage of personal data by a third party, which makes it necessary to conclude a data processing agreement. Furthermore, Doodle AG regularly stores data outside of Europe, which places special requirements on the data processing agreement.
• Access protection:
  As a rule, invitations to a Doodle poll can be forwarded, meaning that third parties can also participate in the respective survey or meeting poll if they receive an invitation link (whether intentionally or by accident). If sensitive data is processed during the poll, this can lead to a genuine data protection incident.

In addition, Doodle uses a whole range of tracking tools that access user data, sometimes in anonymized form. Unfortunately, this behavior, which is anything but data-minimalist, is also present in the paid premium version of Doodle—even if advertising is omitted, data is still transferred to the USA.

However, many other online polling tools are no better when it comes to handling data. So, how about a more data-minimalist alternative?

Data-protection-friendly digital polling tools

These Doodle alternatives show that online meeting scheduling or online surveys can also work in a GDPR-friendly way, which are significantly more data-efficient:

• Dudle: This free scheduling tool, provided by TU Dresden, is not only highly data-efficient but can also be used completely anonymously. It intentionally avoids any unnecessary visual clutter, although you can personalize the tool if you wish.
• DFN: The German National Research and Education Network (DFN) provides an online scheduling tool that is just as simple and free of any commercial agenda. This tool also operates without ads or tracking; all data is hosted in Germany solely for the purpose of the poll and is never shared with third parties. Once the survey is complete or a date has been set, all data is deleted.
  Since the source code used by DFN is open, there is another tool with the same functionality called nuudel .
• Terminplaner: The tool provided by Information und Technik Nordrhein-Westfalen is structured similarly to the DFN version, though it has fewer additional features.

Companies are therefore not dependent on Doodle—it is likely used primarily because of its widespread popularity. However, for your next online scheduling task, why not try one of these alternative, more data-efficient tools? Your data protection officer will thank you!