We recommend that patients send documents to the doctor in encrypted form. The transmission of e-mail is usually not encrypted and therefore potentially insecure with regard to the protection of your personal data. The use of encrypted e-mail is very complicated. Therefore, we recommend that you put photos, findings and the like into an encrypted ZIP archive. Use the format "ZIP" or even better "7z". The encrypted ZIP archive can then be sent by e-mail. For larger archives, you should send them with a data transfer service instead of e-mail (e.g. WeTransfer, TransferNow or similar). The respective password you used for encryption and which we need for decryption should be sent to us via a separate communication channel (e.g. telephone).

You can use the following programs, among others, to create encrypted ZIP archives:

• 7-Zip by 7-zip.org (Windows)
• Keka by keka.io (macOS)
• Zarchiver by ZDevs (Android)
• Zip & Rar by Appostrophe AB (iOS)

Disclaimer of liability: We have tried the above mentioned programs in such a way that we can decrypt and read the archives that are encrypted with them. We have not carried out any extensive or even security-relevant tests and decline any responsibility for this. Whether the programs are GDPR compliant or even certified, is beyond our knowledge and the use is entirely at your own risk and possibly at your own expense. The list is not complete and the publication is without guarantee.




^{Photo by Tomas Sobek on Unsplash}