A tool that runs in your browser
Data Minimisation Canvas
Before asking how to protect a child’s data, ask why it was collected at all. Estimated time: about 5 minutes. Your answers never leave your browser and are not stored. Evidence grade: C, an independent Dawani framework.
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The questions
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How does it score, and what does it not claim?
The canvas walks through ten pieces of a child’s data, from full name to device identifier, and asks two questions about each: what breaks in the product if it is never collected, and if it is essential, could the purpose be met with a coarser value, on the device alone, or transiently and then deleted? It then issues a verdict per item: not collected, collected in a lighter form, collected with parental consent and a stated purpose, or needs legal advice before design. It ends with a written list of questions you can send to a legal adviser as they stand. This is a design canvas, not legal advice; the applicable regimes decide the duties.
What this tool does not claim
This is a design canvas, not legal advice. The applicable data protection law decides the duties, and your own legal adviser answers on them, not the canvas. The canvas classifies what your team writes about itself, so a generous self-description produces a generous result.
Read more in does a children’s app need an account?, or browse the rest of the tools.
The reading behind this tool
Its declared sources
These are general sources we read; they are not a certification of this tool or an endorsement of it. Responsibility for the model and its interpretation stays with Dawani.
Responsible Data for Children (RD4C)
From it we take the proportionality principle, that the scope of collection and its retention should match the stated purpose, and reading data across its whole life cycle.
Before you fill the canvas
Questions about the Data Minimisation Canvas
Is data collected about my own use of the canvas?
No. The canvas runs inside your browser only, and your answers about each data item are neither sent nor stored.
Are the canvas’s verdicts a legal opinion?
No. The canvas only asks about purpose and the lighter alternative; the applicable data protection law decides the duties, not the canvas.
Who do I send the canvas’s list of questions to?
To your own legal adviser, as they stand, before any design decision on the items that need legal advice.
Have a data list that needs a review?
Tell us about your product and what it collects, and we will review every item with you before any final design.
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