In Vienna, 220,000 tenants lose the name badges on their doorbells. The reason: A resident had complained about a lack of privacy. The tenant of a community apartment referred to the General Data Protection Regulation (DSGVO), which finally came into force in May. This confirmed a spokesman for the municipal property management "Wiener Wohnen" on Friday on SPIEGEL request.
The tenant said that according to the EU regulation his privacy is not sufficiently protected if his name is on the bell. The employees of "Wiener Wohnen" inquired and received from the Municipal Department for Data Protection of the City of Magistrats the assessment that the connection of last name and apartment number violates the GDPR.
"So we have to replace the standard signage," said the "Wiener Wohnen" spokesman. In 220,000 apartments in about 2,000 residential complexes all names are to be removed by the end of the year at the bell labels.
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Anonymous numbers instead of last names
Instead, the property management wants to attach numbers to the bell labels so that visitors can still ring the right apartment. If you still want to have your name on the bell sign, you have to become active yourself and attach your own sticker. But the property management is not allowed to do that officially anymore.
The obligation to anonymity exists in Austria actually not only, since the DSGVO applies within the EU, reports the ORF. Even before, there was a right of the tenants for anonymity. Apparently this was not seen as strictly - and no one called it so far.
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