DATA PROTECTION
Italian Data Protection Authority: opinion on the new Opt-Out National Register.
The Italian Data Protection Authority released a favorable opinion to the Ministry of Economic Development on an updated version of the regulation scheme of the National Opt-Out Register for telemarketing, the service that allows users to oppose the use of their telephone numbers for advertising purposes.
However, the Authority asked to clarify that the new rules apply only to telemarketing carried out with calls via a human operator. In fact, automated marketing communications cannot in any case be carried out without the explicit consent of the interested party (opt-in).
The regulation enforces the reform which provides for the possibility for subscribers to register all national fixed and mobile telephone numbers in the Register, whether or not they are listed in the lists.
The new version adapts the text to the findings made in the various opinions issued on the matter by the Council of State, Agcom, the Minister for the Public Administration and the Minister for technological innovation and digitization, and incorporates, almost entirely, the indications provided by the Italian Data Protection Authority in the previous opinion on the Register released two years ago. However, the Authority has asked to correct the text where it identifies the data processing carried out through "the use of the telephone" among the areas of application of the regulation. The Authority recalls the original version of the scheme which referred, for telemarketing, only to data processing carried out "by human operator with the use of the telephone".
Article 130 of the Italian Data Protection Code, in fact, in regulating all unsolicited communications, distinguishes between communications made using automated methods and communications with the intervention of the operator. Therefore, the Italian Data Protection Authority specifies that, at present, it is not legally correct to extend the scope of the Register also to automated communications, which always require the consent of the interested party due to their invasive nature.
(Source: Web site garanteprivacy.it – Author and Ownership of the contents: Italian Data Protection Authority).
However, the Authority asked to clarify that the new rules apply only to telemarketing carried out with calls via a human operator. In fact, automated marketing communications cannot in any case be carried out without the explicit consent of the interested party (opt-in).
The regulation enforces the reform which provides for the possibility for subscribers to register all national fixed and mobile telephone numbers in the Register, whether or not they are listed in the lists.
The new version adapts the text to the findings made in the various opinions issued on the matter by the Council of State, Agcom, the Minister for the Public Administration and the Minister for technological innovation and digitization, and incorporates, almost entirely, the indications provided by the Italian Data Protection Authority in the previous opinion on the Register released two years ago. However, the Authority has asked to correct the text where it identifies the data processing carried out through "the use of the telephone" among the areas of application of the regulation. The Authority recalls the original version of the scheme which referred, for telemarketing, only to data processing carried out "by human operator with the use of the telephone".
Article 130 of the Italian Data Protection Code, in fact, in regulating all unsolicited communications, distinguishes between communications made using automated methods and communications with the intervention of the operator. Therefore, the Italian Data Protection Authority specifies that, at present, it is not legally correct to extend the scope of the Register also to automated communications, which always require the consent of the interested party due to their invasive nature.
(Source: Web site garanteprivacy.it – Author and Ownership of the contents: Italian Data Protection Authority).
