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Italian Data Protection Authority and workplace (Internet) privacy

Today the Italian Data Protection Authority issued an official position re: (internet) workplace privacy protection. The bottom line is: employers cannot control how do employees use the Internet during working hours, providing a few exemption to this general “block”. They are simply wrong and tell just the half of the story. Italian courts (including Corte di cassazione – the Supreme Court), indeed, ruled in favour of a more flexible approach when the employer must investigate misbehaviours or crimes. But the data protection people seems not to be aware of it.

What is worse is that to protect employees’ privacy, the Authority is strongly advocacing for preemptive web filtering and content blocking.

That’s a brilliant trade-off: privacy for censorship… and chicks for free!

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www.italia.it…whoduneit?

On Feb. 22, 2007 Francesco Rutelli, Italian minister for cultural assets and Prime Minister’s “number two” proudly announced www.italia.it launch. The website – costing approx 45 MILLIONS Euro – has been presentend by politicians (including Ermete Realacci, the head of Legambiente – the biggest environmental NGO and environmental political lobby in Italy) as a true “giant step” in promoting Italy “image” around the world.

The result, as everybody can experiment on his own, is just a crappy website, as the Italian online community quickly (and sadly) discovered. And at what cost!

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Italian Government: the Biggest Gamblers (or: money doesn’t smell)

Italy is a strange country. The State cares of public health by telling everybody that “smoke kills”, while still holds the legal monopoly in the tobacco manufacturing market.

Following the same “we care” apprach, online gambling has been labeled as THE eviliest thing, able to corrupt young generations, waste worker wages, endanger the public security. Criminal court everywhere in Italy are full of trials where the defendants are charged to having organised “illegal betting services” by opening internet points from where people was privately playing with regular British and other EU-based bookmakers.

Despite the EU Court of Justice said that Italy was wrong in discriminating legally established EU bookmakers, the Corte di cassazione – Italian Supreme Court – ruled that (online) gambling must be punished since endagers the Order of the State. But all of a sudden, these concerns disappeared.

Legge finanziaria 2007 “slightly” amends sect. 38 of Decree 223/2006 by legalising – with a few restrictions – the very same online gaming activities that up to a few weeks before were accused of being “families disgregator”. How was that possible?

Easy: just pay the Government a 3% “gambling tax” on every bet, and all the problems and concerns just disappear. At the end of the day – I can imagine the politicians’ defense – we did our job: we told you not to play. If you don’t follow our advice…the choice is yours!