Blog

Posted on

Why No One Goes to Napoli? An answer to Beppe Severgnini’s Post on The New York Times

This post is rather unusual for the content of this blog, but when I read what has been published by The New York Times online about the reason that prevent people from visiting the Southern part of Italy I felt the need to throw my two cents on the table about this column by Beppe Severgnini (the Italian, Lombardy-born journalist who authored it.)

Severgnini has a (rather easy) point when he claims that ? the southern part of Italy should and could be far better organized but – and here is where I disagree with him – ? it will never be a german or british-like place. As odd as it might seems, one of the beauty of the Southern Italy is that to enjoy it you must, MUST do it with some local that let you experience the actual spirit of the place.

The biggest secret of the Southern Italy is that you don’t actually go there just to look for monuments or nature. This isn’t a Paris or New York-like place, where you just wander around the town, visit museums and exhibition, get (maybe) decent food and ? go back home without anybody – but your credit card company – noticing your presence. The rest of Italy – and the rest of the world – are full of that kind of experiences. So if you travel around the South and limit yourself to sightseeing I agree, this can be a very frustrating experience. What is really different – and worth to be sought – is the lifestyle that makes the South unique. Hospitality, friendship, generosity… If you really seek to enjoy the South, befriend a local and you will discover another universe.

On the contrary, you won’t generally find all that in the Italian Northern (West/East)’s attitude. I don’t want to raise an anthropological quarrel neither with our kind brothers from the North West that ? back in the XIX century “gently” included the South within their kingdom, while importing culture and manpower, nor with our (greed-motivated separatist) brothers from the North East. ? Of course even these places too are inhabited by ? nice people but the genius loci between South and North is definitely different.

A recent anecdote clarifies the point: I landed yesterday night at Fiumicino coming back from abroad, and got the last long-trip bus to my hometown. The journey was supposed to start at 22,45 but the driver waited an extra five minutes (actually five, I mean) to allow possible passengers that were late to board. At 22.47 a lady confronted the driver blaming him for not leaving on time. The driver politely told her: “madam, this is the last bus. If somebody miss it there is no way to come back home until tomorrow morning. What harms does it do if I wait some extra time?” and the lady: “I don’t care: I want to go home right now! This is why Italy is rotten!” Well from a Northerner point of view the lady was entirely right, but was she?

I don’t want to say that the South is good as it is. There are problems: inefficiency, unpredictability of the services, crime (but ‘ndrangheta, mafia and other forms of organized crime are deeply rooted in Milan, as the public prosecution investigations have demonstrated) … These problems have to be solved as fast and as much as possible, but this won’t going to happen – as Mr.Severgnini wishes – neither by killing our Southern soul nor ? by intercession of “Don Matteo”. 1

Mr. Severgnini, to put it short, failed to answer the rhetorical question he asked himself.

  1. Don Matteo is a TV series starring a priest (Don Matteo) who solves criminal cases helping the Carabinieri. Don Matteo fixes almost everything, from personal issues to serious crimes. Matteo Renzi, the prime minister, is a catholic ? and has a “ghe pensi mi” (pronounced: ge pensee mee) attitude (a Milan slang for “I’ll take care of everything”.) ↩
Posted on

The EU Data Retention Directive Trashed by the EU Court of Justice

Today the Europan Court of Justice has declared invalid the Data Retention Directive that forced ISP’s to retain some traffic data to be made available for the law enforcement agencies. Though the decision is immediately effective, until the local parliaments don’t update the concerned internal regulations, as crazy as it may sounds, ? the data-retention is still a legal obligation to be fulfilled.

It would be of great help if the local data protection authorities would issue a statement saying that they will not enforce anymore their own controls on data-retention, since any activity in this direction could be challenged on the ECJ decision.

A final remark: how is it possible that the data-protection authorities all over Europe didn’t spot the “little”, “tiny” problem of the Data Retention Directive?

Posted on

There is no such thing as “Information Security”

Security is Security. Period. No matter whether you’re designing a network, traveling around some third world country or assessing the pollution of the food you’re going to eat: security prowess comes from the confrontation of danger(s).

There is something different in people who’s been exposed to dangers of every sort (soldiers, firefighters, ER personnel) and those who don’t: the former knows what they’re talking about, the latter don’t. You can read it in their eyes, demeanor and down-to-earth approach, contrary to the pompous, empty style of somebody who can’t even handle spending half an hour on Barcelona’s Las Ramblas without being pickpocketed.

Think about it, the next time a “security” consultant tells you that “you have a security problem” and that “he can fix it”.

Posted on

Google and the Italian Data Protecion Authority fine

The news is making the round that Google has been indicted to pay a 1.000.000,00 Euros’ fine for the Street View’s “privacy infringement” under Italian Privacy Act. But (at least in this case) Google didn’t violate the Italian Laws and the Data Protection Authority did a blatant mistake: let’s see why.

1 – Google has not been investigated under “privacy” law, the relevant statute being the Data Protection Act (as I wrote, there is no superimposition between the two legal concepts);

2 – The Data Protection Act, being an enforcement of the EU Directive 95/46/CE only handles “personal data”, i.e. data that either identify a natural person or make a natural person identifiable;

3 – As the Italian Supreme Court said more than once – and so did the same Data Protection Authority ? – outdoor there is no reasonable privacy expectation,

Then, as soon as Street View shots pictures in open spaces and doesn’t identify people, there is no “privacy” infringement.

But this is just a conclusion drafted by interpreting the law. Real life is a horse of different colour.

Posted on

EU “Privacy” Directives and the Haunted Companies

The right to privacy is a pre-requisite of the EU Directive 95/46/CE ? and not its object. Art. 1 states it loud and clear:

1. In accordance with this Directive, Member States shall protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons, and in particular their right to privacy with respect to the processing of personal data.

This means that that calling the data protection-related directive – as well as the upcoming new regulation – “privacy law” or whatever similar is not just a terminology’s mistake but an error with actual (and costly) consequences negatively affecting companies’ budget allocation, legal compliance and marketing capabilities.

Under the EU data protection legal framework, companies are not required to protect “privacy” as such, but only to handle personal data on a “need-to-know” basis provided that fundamental rights are not endangered. This has nothing to do with the “hush-hush” attitude commonly “sold” by “expert” consultants summoning the right to privacy as a threatening devil to haunt a company.

Stop using “privacy” as a substitute for “data protection” and your (corporate) life will keep smiling at you again.