Anonymization of Measurement and Monitoring Data: Requirements and Solutions

It is commonly agreed that measurement and monitoring of communication networks are necessary steps to obtain knowledge about the current state and behavior of the network. Such information can be used for accounting or traffic engineering solutions as well as for network security approaches such as attack detection and prevention. At the same time, as more efficient monitoring tools are developed, conflicts with the protection of data privacy arise. In this article, we provide a study of the current legal situation in Germany. As can be seen, there are many flaws in the German law concerning the appropriateness of particular monitoring solutions. We also discuss possible approaches for anonymization of measurement and monitoring data and evaluate their applicability based on the legal foundations.