Schools in Baden-Württemberg must switch to alternative services after the 2022 summer vacation. This is the demand of the state's data protection officer, Dr. Stefan Birk. Read here to find out what the data protection officer is worried about and how the changeover will work.

After years of the pandemic, digital teaching has become established in Germany's schools. Services such as Teams, the communication and collaboration tool in the Microsoft 365 suite, make it possible for pupils to switch to distance learning if the coronavirus situation requires it. However, data protection-compliant use of Microsoft 365 is not guaranteed, argues State Data Protection Commissioner Dr. Stefan Birk.

The end was foreseeable

Back in September 2020, the Baden Württemberg Philologists' Association warned against the use of MS 365. Many pupils and parents also complained to the supervisory authority about the use of Microsoft's Teams cloud service - a platform that combines chat, meetings, notes and attachments. The problem: even if the user deactivates the collection of telemetry and diagnostic data during use, data is transferred to the USA. This was discovered by the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs as part of a pilot project supervised by the Data Protection Commissioner. According to Stefan Birk, it is not completely clear which personal data is processed for which purposes, nor do the schools have complete control over the overall system.

Schools under pressure to act

His plan is now to approach the affected schools and support them in switching to data protection-compliant providers. There are around 40 schools in Baden-Württemberg that now need to take action. Birk is not calling for a ban on the continued use of MS 365. However, its use beyond the summer vacations requires schools to provide clear evidence of data protection-compliant operation. As this is unlikely to be feasible, the Ministry of Education is offering free alternatives. These include the learning platforms Moodle and Itslearning, which can also be used for video conferencing. Both are tried and tested programs that schools can switch to. However, the switch poses another problem for vocational schools: many cooperating companies from industry and commerce use Microsoft applications - and will continue to do so after the 2022 summer vacation.