Italy: Italian Guarantor for the protection of personal data issues opinion on draft-decree law on data acquisition related to telephone and electronic traffic for criminal investigation purposes

Following the request from the Ministry of Justice, the Italian Guarantor for the protection of personal data has issued an opinion on a number of provisions of the draft decree-law for the reform of the discipline of the acquisition of data relating to telephone and electronic traffic for criminal investigation purposes. The purpose of the decree-law is to guarantee "the possibility of acquiring data relating to telephone and electronic traffic for criminal investigation purposes in compliance with the principles set out by the Grand Section of the Court of Justice of the Union European Union in the judgment of 2 March 2021, case C-746/18, and in particular to limit the acquisition activities to criminal proceedings concerning serious forms of crime and to ensure that these activities are subject to the control of a judicial authority " . The proposed reform aims to adapt the regulation of the acquisition of traffic data to the principles sanctioned by the aforementioned judgment of the Court and to limit the possibility of acquiring data from criminal proceedings, as well as to attribute the authorization competence to the judicial authority.