Italy extends data retention to six years
On 8 November 2017, the Italian Parliament approved a Regulation on data retention that allows telecommunication operators to save telephone and internet data for up to six years.
The Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights (CILD) and EDRi observer member Hermes Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights published their statement criticising the lack of scrutiny and meaningful debate about the Regulation prior to its approval. They also stated that the measure is to the detriment of the privacy of citizens, and could have extremely serious consequences for all of us. The two organisations have been voicing concerns since July 2017, when the provision was inserted into a transposition law following a European Council Directive 2014/33/EU on the “safety of lifts”.
In particular, the Regulation is in unequivocal breach case of law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and results in a clear conflict of law with current Italian privacy regulations, as pointed out by the president of the Italian Data Protection Authority Antonello Soro in October 2017.
Also, on 13 November, the European Data Protection Supervisor Giovanni Buttarelli commented that the newly approved Italian Regulation definitively fails to respect the European approach to data retention.
It seems inevitable that the law will be challenged in court.
Our phone and web data will be stored for 6 years: what about our rights? (12.11.2017)
https://cild.eu/en/2017/11/12/phone-web-data-will-stored-6-years-rights/
Court of Justice of the European Union: The Members States may not impose a general obligation to retain data on providers of electronic communications services (21.12.2016)
https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2016-12/cp160145en.pdf
European Data Protection Supervisor: “EU is the leader in data protection” (only in Italian, 13.11.2017)
http://www.lastampa.it/2017/11/13/esteri/garante-privacy-ue-sulla-protezione-dei-dati-leuropa-leader-edTINi7G4UzW0KvDtM6emL/pagina.html
‘6 years data retention, Court of Justice of EU may cancel it’. Interview to Prof. Filippo Benelli on likely CJEU action (only in Italian, 09.11.2017)
https://www.key4biz.it/data-retention-6-anni-corte-giustizia-ue-annullarla-intervista-filippo-benelli-universita-macerata/204732/
Metadata of phone and internet traffic: must be stored for 6 years (only in Italian, 08.11.2017)
http://www.repubblica.it/tecnologia/sicurezza/2017/11/08/news/dati_traffico_telefonico_e_telematico_dovranno_essere_conservati_per_6_anni-180604974/
(Contribution by Antonella Napolitano, the Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights CILD, and Fabio Pietrosanti, Hermes Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights, Italy)
