
Goodcoin – Robust Privacy for Loyalty Programmes and Payment Systems
Goodcoin is a three-year research project – throughout this time a data protection-friendly bonus point and customer loyalty system will be developed. The lead partner of the project is the Humboldt University of Berlin; accompanying research is carried out in cooperation with the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society as well as with Bonsum UG.
Reconciling conflicting interests through technological innovation
Bonus and loyalty point systems are often used to analyse the purchasing behavior and to create comprehensive profiles of customer interests. This data helps retailers to provide personalized offers and to approach potential customers. In order to reconcile the customers interests of informational self-determination with the objectives of retailers, this research project aims at a data protection-friendly design of the Goodcoin system.
Customers will remain anonymous during digital shopping, which prevents the creation of consumer profiles by online retailers. Nevertheless, the system is able to statistically evaluate the consumption behavior in order to determine new market trends and to align retailers’ supply structures at an early stage. The project also explores possibilities for implementing data protection-friendly product recommendation systems. If requested, customers can also receive digital advice on products. The concepts in development are based on innovative encryption and anonymisation procedures. When paying online, customers should be able to use anonymous, digital value units: the GoodCoins. The GoodCoins serve as digital coins and represent bonus points for purchases made at the same time.
The private-sphere-friendly realisation of an everyday bonus and customer loyalty system makes a decisive contribution to the technically supported reconciliation of competing rationalities. Innovation serves as a means of resolving governance conflicts.
Duration | 01/2016 – 12/2018 |
Sponsors | The project Goodcoin is part of the BMBF-network project “Datenschutz: selbstbestimmt in der digitalen Welt” |
Support us
Via the Internet & Society Foundation or with a donation.
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Björn Scheuermann, Prof. Dr.
Research Director -
Julian Hölzel
Associate Researcher: Data, actors, infrastructures -
Stefan Dietzel, Dr.
Associated Researcher: Data, actors, infrastructures
Journal articles and conference proceedings
Hölzel, J. (2018). Anonymisierungstechniken und das Datenschutzrecht. Datenschutz und Datensicherheit, 42(8), 502–509. Publication details
Other publications
Hölzel, J. (2017). Bitcoin – Plutokratie auf Raten? HIIG Blog. Publication details
Lectures and presentations
PETable GDPR? Anonymization Techniques and the LawPET-CON 2018.1: 8th Privacy Enhancing Techniques Convention. GI: Fachgruppe Datenschutzfördernde Technik. Einstein Center Digital Future, Berlin, Germany: 20.05.2018
Julian Hölzel
Personenbezug hat als Unterscheidungskriterium ausgedient: Wie Grundrechte und Grundfreiheiten auch durch die Verarbeitung nicht-personenbezogener Daten bedroht werden könnenDigitalisierung und Mobilität: Grundsatzfragen Informationsfreiheit und Datenschutz. instkomm – Institut für Kommunikationsforschung. Europäische Akademie, Berlin, Germany: 17.07.2017
Jörg Pohle, Julian Hölzel
Richterratschlag 2016: Kryptografische Währungen am Beispiel von Bitcoin. Justizakademie Nordrhein-Westfalen, Recklinghausen, Germany: 05.11.2016Neue Richtervereinigung - Zusammenschluss von Richterinnen und Richtern, Staatsanwältinnen und Staatsanwälten e.V.
Organisation of events
Privacy: Historischer Überblick und Vergleich ausgewählter KonzepteSecurity und Privacy in dezentralen Systemen. From 01.11.2017 to 14.02.2018. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany. Co-Organised by: Schoppmann, Phillipp; Sparka, Hagen; Brack, Samuel; Henningsen, Sebastian; Scheuermann, Björn; Dietzel, Stefan (National)
Julian Hölzel
Geschichte und Theorie des eGovernmentwith attending Vip: Klaus Lenk. 19.04.2017. Alexander von Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany (National)
Julian Hölzel, Jörg Pohle
Regulatorische Aspekte von KryptowährungenDigitale Währungen (M.A. Informatik/Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin). with attending Vip: Samuel Brack. From 18.04.2017 to 18.07.2017. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, RUD 25, Raum 3.113, Berlin, Germany (National)
Stefan Dietzel, Julian Hölzel