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Friday, November 27, 2020
After criticism of the perception of the account
Telefónica exits the Schufa test
If you want to get a rental agreement or a loan, you need a good Schufa rating. A test from the credit bureau, alternatively to take a look at bank statements, causes horror, and apparently “cold feet” for the mobile phone company involved.
An offer from Schufa to assess consumers’ future creditworthiness using their bank statements is causing a stir. In cooperation with the mobile phone company Telefónica / O2, the credit bureau checked whether consumers are willing for Schufa to store relevant account data for evaluation for twelve months. “There is currently no data flow,” said Ole Schröder, a member of the Schufa board.
Consumer advocates and politicians criticized the project, which the group declared terminated. “Unfortunately, the results of this test did not meet our expectations,” said Telefónica / O2. “That is why Telefónica / O2 decided today to end the test and stop using the Schufa ‘CheckNow’ procedure.” The procedure advocated by the Schufa as a common procedure in Europe also calls the Federal Ministry of Justice to the scene.
During the trial, prospective new customers who would not normally get a mobile phone contract due to their poor rating could have Schufa review their account. “Because at Telefónica there are a few potential clients whose contract request had to be rejected due to lack of negative, inadequate or old credit information, although their current financial situation did not present any problem,” said the group. Around 100 people participated in the pilot project on a voluntary basis. To do this, they had to give an express order to the Schufa. The group emphasized: “Schufa offers the process to consumers at their own risk under data protection law.” The information of the account used was not saved.
Klaus Müller, a board member of the Federation of German Consumer Organizations, accused the Schufa of “snooping accounts”. “Such in-depth data analysis of account movements for scoring purposes enables conclusions to be drawn about the personality, economic status and even political orientations of customers, and thus ultimately leads to the fully targeted consumer. “. Check out the legal steps in case the credit bureau implements these plans. Schufa’s board member Schröder emphasized: “Sensitive data such as paying a doctor’s bill is automatically filtered and should not be processed.”
Ministry of Justice wants to legally examine the model
According to the company, the stored account data is limited to data relevant to credit rating and fraud prevention. With the voluntary storage of data, the consumer can prevent future access to the account by third parties and continue to use his data to his advantage in a Schufa credit rating. Account analysis is carried out only once at the Schufa. “The goal is for consumers to benefit from current and positive account information for future transactions and credit checks,” said Schröder. “This means that the data is more up-to-date and we also meet the demands of consumer advocates.”
For consumers who haven’t given an order to review the account, the classic credit check remains, Schröder said. “If the evaluation according to the account data is negative, the consumer can revoke his consent.” Then the classic credit check remains. “From our point of view, it is better for consumers to have Schufa collect data in trust as a neutral authority than companies that do business with them directly.” Since the introduction of the EU’s Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), external providers, such as financial startups, have been able to obtain account information. The prerequisite is that the client agrees to this.
Schufa bought Munich’s account information service Finapi GmbH at the end of December 2018. According to Schröder, the project is a process that is now common in Europe and “that other credit bureaus have been using for some time.” Schufa is constantly in close coordination with the data protection authorities. “He was informed before the test that the data protection officers do not have to agree.” A spokesman for the Federal Justice Ministry said this new business model raises legal questions. Therefore, the ministry, which has only now found out about it, will “examine it closely.” After all, this is “particularly sensitive data” and consumers should always be able to understand what they are consenting to.
Green politicians Tabea Rößner and Konstantin von Notz criticized Schufa already having access to extensive information on consumers “who still cannot understand how and in what way this data is weighted for personal scoring.” Deputy Chairman of the FDP parliamentary group, Stephan Thomae, said it was alarming that the Schufa wanted to leak consumers’ bank statements. “Citizens should pay with their data for lower prices and more opportunities in legal traffic.” If, in the end, citizens could only conclude a rental or mobile phone contract with the consent of Schufa for this data processing, they would in fact no longer have freedom of choice.
