Master
ThoughtWorks
Menü
schließen
  • Unsere Services
    • Übersicht
    • Customer Experience, Produkt und Design
    • Data Strategy, Engineering und Analytics
    • Digitale Transformation und Operations
    • Enterprise Modernization, Plattformen und Cloud
  • Unsere Kunden
    • Übersicht
    • Automobil
    • Gesundheit
    • Öffentlicher Sektor
    • Clientech, Energie und Versorgung
    • Medien
    • Handel und E-Commerce
    • Banken und Versicherungen
    • Non-Profit
    • Reise und Transport
  • Insights
    • Übersicht
    • Unsere Empfehlungen

      • Technologie

        Ausführliche Betrachtungen neuer Technologien.

      • Business

        Aktuelle Business-Insights, Strategien und Impulse für digitale Querdenker.

      • Kultur

        Insights zu Karrieremöglichkeiten und unsere Sicht auf soziale Gerechtigkeit und Inklusivität.

    • Digitale Veröffentlichungen und Tools

      • Technology Radar

        Unser Leitfaden für aktuelle Technologietrends.

      • Perspectives

        Unsere Publikation für digitale Vordenker*innen

      • Digital Fluency Model

        Ein Modell zur Priorisierung digitaler Fähigkeiten, um für das Unvorhersehbare bereit zu sein.

      • Decoder

        Der Technology-Guide für Business Entscheider

    • Alle Insights

      • Artikel

        Expertenwissen für Ihr Unternehmen.

      • Blogs

        Persönliche Perspektiven von ThoughtWorkern aus aller Welt.

      • Bücher

        Stöbern Sie durch unsere umfangreiche Bibliothek.

      • Podcasts

        Spannende Gespräche über das Neueste aus Business und Technologie.

  • Karriere
    • Übersicht
    • Bewerbungsprozess

      Finde heraus, was dich in unserem Bewerbungsprozess erwartet.

    • Hochschulabsovent*innen und Quereinsteiger*innen

      Dein Einstieg in die IT-Welt.

    • Stellenangebote

      Finde offene Stellen in deiner Region.

    • In Kontakt bleiben

      Abonniere unsere monatlichen Updates.

  • Über uns
    • Übersicht
    • Unsere Mission
    • Awards und Auszeichnungen
    • Vielfalt, Gleichberechtigung, Inklusion
    • Management
    • Partnerschaften
    • Neuigkeiten
    • Konferenzen und Events
  • Kontakt
Germany | Deutsch
  • United States United States
    English
  • China China
    中文 | English
  • India India
    English
  • Canada Canada
    English
  • Singapore Singapore
    English
  • United Kingdom United Kingdom
    English
  • Australia Australia
    English
  • Germany Germany
    English | Deutsch
  • Brazil Brazil
    English | Português
  • Spain Spain
    English | Español
  • Global Global
    English
Blogs
Wählen Sie ein Thema
Alle Themen ansehenschließen
Technologie 
Agiles Projektmanagement Cloud Continuous Delivery  Data Science & Engineering Defending the Free Internet Evolutionäre Architekturen Experience Design IoT Sprachen, Tools & Frameworks Modernisierung bestehender Alt-Systeme Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence Microservices Plattformen Sicherheit Software Testing Technologiestrategie 
Geschäft 
Financial Services Global Health Innovation Retail  Transformation 
Karriere 
Karriere Hacks Diversity und Inclusion Social Change 
Blogs

Themen

Thema auswählen
  • Technologie
    Technologie
  • Technologie Überblick
  • Agiles Projektmanagement
  • Cloud
  • Continuous Delivery
  • Data Science & Engineering
  • Defending the Free Internet
  • Evolutionäre Architekturen
  • Experience Design
  • IoT
  • Sprachen, Tools & Frameworks
  • Modernisierung bestehender Alt-Systeme
  • Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence
  • Microservices
  • Plattformen
  • Sicherheit
  • Software Testing
  • Technologiestrategie
  • Geschäft
    Geschäft
  • Geschäft Überblick
  • Financial Services
  • Global Health
  • Innovation
  • Retail
  • Transformation
  • Karriere
    Karriere
  • Karriere Überblick
  • Karriere Hacks
  • Diversity und Inclusion
  • Social Change
Defending the Free InternetSocial ChangeDiversity und InclusionTechnologieKarriere

Datensparsamkeit

Martin Fowler Martin Fowler

Published: Jan 7, 2014

Datensparsamkeit is a German word that's difficult to translate properly into English. It's an attitude to how we capture and store data, saying that we should only handle data that we really need.

These days there's a lot of hype around the idea of Big Data - and with it the notion that we should capture and store every bit of data we can get our hands on. We might not have an immediate use for the contacts our users store in their address books, but we'll ask for it anyway in case it comes in useful later. We'll record every click on our website and squirrel it away in case we want to trawl it later. We set up our smartphone app to ask for location information so if we come up with some way to use that data later, we can. After all, storage is cheap - so why not?

The problem with the "capture-it-all" approach is that it raises serious questions of privacy. Even if we trust ourselves to not abuse the data we collect, each data store represents a target for criminals or government surveillance agencies. This issue is particularly fraught in Germany which has seen successive regimes where governments have carried out extensive surveillance of their citizens in order to control them. Germany consequently has strong data privacy laws.

Datensparsamkeit 1 is a concept from these privacy laws that is an opposite philosophy to "capture-all-the-things". A translation isn't straightforward (which is why I've retained the German word) but loosely you might translate it as something like "data austerity", "data minimization", "data parsimony", or "data frugality". It means that you should always ask yourself why you are capturing or storing data, and look to handle only the minimum amount of data you need for your purpose.

An example of this is tracking users on your web site to determine how many unique visitors you have. If the same person accesses several pages within a few hours, you want to count that as one visit. If they visit several times a month, you still only want to count them as a single visitor. One way to do this is to log IP addresses, you count each IP address as a single person 2. But an IP address is very revealing, and could be used for much more than counting vistors. Datensparsamkeit suggests that you shouldn't store the IP address directly, perhaps instead you should hash it and only store the hash.

A similar example involving IP addresses is using them to infer demographic information such as region and country. You can get most of this information and practice datensparsamkeit by just logging the first three octets of the IP address.

Datensparsamkeit isn't just about bad people stealing data, it's also about your relationship with the primary company themselves. The default attitude at the moment is that any data you generate is not just freely usable by the capturer but furthermore becomes their valuable commercial property. Privacy advocates, including me, think this assumption needs to be changed. Companies should only capture what they need and the burden of demonstrating need should fall on them. In addition, of course, they must be completely transparant about what they capture, what they store, and who they share their data with. Any breaches of data security must be immediately publicized (instead of covered up, which is the current default).

Even if you don't share my views on personal control of our own data, the risks of security breaches mean that datensparsamkeit is a wise course of action. If you hold data that you don't need, and someone steals it and causes damage, shouldn't you be liable for that damage? Even if there's no legal liability the publicity will have serious consequences - and thus there is risk for anyone who doesn't practice datensparsamkeit.

Note: This blog was originally published on martinfowler.com.

Acknowledgements

Erik Dörnenburg introduced me to Datensparsamkeit. The meme "… all the things" seems to have been around forever (at least a decade) so I'm glad Korny Sietsma taught me that it started in 2010.

1: Here's some help on pronunciation

2: I realize that with Network Address Translation, things are rather more involved than this, but I wanted a simple example.

Master
Datenschutz | Modern Slavery statement | Barrierefreies Webdesign
Connect with us
×

WeChat

QR code to ThoughtWorks China WeChat subscription account
© 2021 ThoughtWorks, Inc.