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| Time to speed up privacy compliance |
The Italian Data Protection Authority sanctioned two major information services companies and a telecom operator with an aggregate fine of € 800,000 for breach of orders issued against them for breach of privacy regulations.
As part of prior audit of the Italian data protection authority, it appeared that the two information services companies had created and sold databases with details (e.g. telephone number, email address and postal address) of million of people collecting information from public phone directories. Such data had been unlawfully used for marketing purposes without having priviously provided individuals with a privacy information notice and obtained their consent to the delivery of marketing communications. Also, as to the telecom operator, despite the fact he was aware of the unlawful source of the data, it had purchased the databases and processed such data for marketing purposes.
This action from the Italian data protection authority shows a new aggressive approach on ensuring compliance with privacy regulations which has been also confirmed by the adoption of the recent regulations on data breaches.
A number of clients of us are experiencing audits from the Italian data protection authority and this is one of the reasons why we are receiving more and more requests of review of privacy compliance of companies and groups. Indeed, privacy compliance issues are often underestimated, but given the potential sanctions that include also criminal sanctions as Google recently experienced, these shall be taken in higher consideration.
Also, the coming into force of the EU General Data Protection Regulation will provide massive sanctions also against non-European entities which shall comply with European data protection laws if they offer goods or services to individuals located in Europe or monitor their behaviour.
It is a crucial time for privacy compliance matters and as usual if you want to discuss about it, feel free to contact me, Giulio Coraggio.
Image courtesy of Flickr by Rob Pongsajapan
Image courtesy of Flickr by Rob Pongsajapan
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