(in German)

Adaptive work assistance systems are characterized by two developments: On the one hand, the progress in technology allows for an increasingly stronger and more diversified application in many industrial sectors. On the other hand, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) established a new legal standard for data protection law in Europe which sets a new framework for the application of these systems. Both developments give reason to focus more deeply on data protection requirements for the application of work assistance systems in companies. The following key points have resulted from the analysis:

• The application of adaptive assistance systems and the corresponding processing of employees' personal data will generally be covered by section 26 (1) Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG-neu) on data processing for employment-related purposes.
• The application of adaptive assistance systems can also be regulated by collec-tive agreements.
• The employee´s consent, on the other hand will, only come into consideration in exceptional cases be a viable option.
• The data processing in question must be necessary for a specific purpose. Amendments to the purpose are only admissible within very narrow limits of the GDPR. By contrast, collecting employees' personal data without specifying the purpose similar to a "glass factory", is prohibited.
• Employees have comprehensive data subject rights, including the rights of infor-mation, access to and rectification or erasure of personal data as well as the right to data portability. In connection with adaptive assistance systems, these rights can however be limited by interests of the company, in particular trade and business secrets.

The GDPR strengthens technical data protection. Especially concerning adaptive assistance systems, it is necessary to verify whether restricting on the employees’ privacy through data processing can be avoided or mitigated by appropriate technical measures, default setting in terms of data minimisation and anonymization or pseudonymization concepts.

Please download the complete report "Data protection requirements for the application of adaptive work assistance systems" (in German only).