How can companies and private individuals retain control over their own data – and protect themselves from data abuse? The example of a data trustee platform for digital fleet services shows what is technically possible today.
Sharing data: a technical solution for digital fleet services
In my last blog, I urged readers to “End your data immaturity”. But the question is: how? Yes, self-reflective action and the will to handle one’s own data more carefully is the first step, but that alone is not enough. Equally important is a suitable technical solution that is trustworthy and capable of implementing the stated intention to share one’s own data correctly and in a way that is understandable.
TÜV Rheinland is currently working on this technical solution in the context of vehicle fleets. This is a topic that is increasingly coming into focus: Recent figures published by the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) reveal that the number commercial registrations of new vehicles is steadily growing.
The ongoing trend of using “mobility-as-a-service”
According to the KBA, 65.5 percent of newly registered vehicles are now used for commercial purposes. This development can be attributed to the ongoing trend of using “mobility-as-a-service”. Which means: Vehicles are increasingly leased, rented or shared or made available as company cars by employers. More and more often, the person using a vehicle is not its owner, which means that both fleet operators and drivers have to deal with special data protection issues. In fact, in a separate TÜV Rheinland market analysis, almost all fleet operators surveyed mentioned data protection as one of the most important challenges in regards to the potential usage of vehicle data.
%
of newly registered vehicles are used for commercial purposes
Data trustee platform enables GDPR-compliant processing
To offer a solution for fleet operators and drivers, TÜV Rheinland has developed a data trustee platform for digital fleet services. A specially developed “Trusted Data” system ensures that the generated data is processed in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Data can only be processed for use within the scope of the digital fleet services, if the data subject has previously given consent or a legitimate interest of the owner has been registered. Vehicle users can exercise all of their rights under the GDPR – accessing data, changing approvals, exporting data, having data erased, etc. – via the platform and see at any time for which services they have issued what kind of approvals. The data is transmitted using strong encryption. If no consent has been given for the use of personal data, the data will be automatically deleted immediately and without processing.
Automated claims management as one exemplary service
The platform enables a wide range of digital services relevant to fleet management. For the area of claims processing, for example, it can deliver considerable time and cost benefits. Using an automated end-to-end process, the data trustee platform can guide both drivers and operators through the individual steps of the claims process – from automatically reporting incidents and damages directly from the vehicle to the final settlement of the claim and returning to regular operation. But more about that in the next blog post.
Do you have questions about the data trustee platform?
Contact: franziska.weiser@de.tuv.com
Author

Franziska Weiser
HEAD OF COMPETENCE CENTER DIGITAL MOBILITY SERVICES
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