Free Internet already at 80 SBB stations
Over the past two years, SBB has equipped about 80 stations with free internet access. On weekdays, more than 100,000 travelers use the Wi-Fi service daily. The service initially faced criticism due to unclear privacy policies.
In the meantime, SBB has adapted its data protection regulations under pressure from the Swiss Federal Data Protection Commissioner. In the opinion of the data protection officer, the General Terms and Conditions (GTC) were not formulated precisely enough. It was not clear from them which data was to be processed for which purposes, according to the data protection officer's June activity report. Theoretically, it would have been possible for SBB to use the data for marketing purposes or to analyze the flow of people. However, this would have required the clear consent of the user. The data protection officer also criticized the fact that the data is stored for twelve months instead of the planned six months. Overall, two years after the introduction of its "SBB-Free WiFi", SBB is taking positive stock: more than one million travelers have signed up for the free WLAN since September 2013, SBB wrote in a statement on Wednesday. In addition to Internet access, travelers can also use information around the station. SBB sees better reception during the journey as another cornerstone of its mobile communications strategy. In long-distance traffic, it has therefore already equipped all of the planned 1083 coaches and 51 compositions with signal amplifiers. By the end of 2020 at the latest, 1700 amplifiers are also to be installed in regional traffic. (SDA)
Image: SBB
