Sep 29, 2006 3:21 PM

Italian Centipede

(((I wonder why I'm not surprised to hear how prevalent this Italian cellphone snooping has been. D'you suppose that's going on in YOUR cellphone provider? Why wouldn't it be?)))

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8. Italian authorities messed up by the wiretapping scandal

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The Italian wiretapping scandal has continued since this summer, showing that Telecom Italia internal security service has tapped phone calls from their own employees, business partners, competition, but also from political and football circles.

((("Football circles"??)))

The wiretapped phone calls database was apparently used to blackmail various people. According to a prosecutor that is investigating the case the obtained funds were used for corruption activities. The wiretapping was possible due to a series of accomplices from the Police, Prosecutors and Secret services.

((("Accomplices"?)))

The Italian Government issued last week a new normative act on

"wiretapping" that tries to prevent the usage of the wiretapped

conversations in any court cases. The new decree even condemns the possession of illegal wiretapping information. The Prime Minister has declared that "The objective is to at least stop the rot spreading. (((Or the centipede slithering, to use another metaphor. ))) We want to ensure that no wave of blackmail ((("wave of blackmail"))) can begin. (((("Begin"??))) That would make the attack on democracy even more serious."

Also, the Italian Ministry of Justice, Clemente Mastella, ordered an

investigation regarding the Telecom Italia procedures on wiretapping and to check out whether these procedures allow unauthorized access. The final report should be shared with the lawmakers.

The Italian Data Protection Commission (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali) issued a new press release on 21 September making a public call to every citizen, media and other public entities to respect privacy if they have documents or information regarding the content of the wiretapped conversations.

The chaotic way in which the public authorities have dealt with the

situation is underlined in several articles that show the state institutions have reacted very late and only when their leaders' personal interests might have been at stake. (((Someday politicians will understand that wiretaps are aimed at compromising people in power through sexual means.)))

Andrea Monti from EDRI-member ALCEI has correctly underlined that the Italian Data Protection Commission, which should have controlled this market has only "succeeded" in sending a press release. He also points out that, contrary to the most spread common opinions that the "hackers", "pirates" and "direct marketing multinational companies" are those targeting our

personal data, the authors of the biggest problems related to the misuse of information are actually insiders, not very technical, such as members of the Police and Information Services. ((('Cause they've got guns and badges!)))

Garante: nobody to publish the contents of the illegal files (only in

Italian, 21.09.2006)

http://www.garanteprivacy.it/garante/doc.jsp?ID=1340198

Decree-Law no. 259/ 22 September 2006,

Emergency provisions for the modification of the norm regarding the

wiretapping (only in Italian, 22.09.2006)

http://www.interlex.it/testi/dl06_259.htm

Eight Years of Abuses and Garante issues a press release (only in Italian,

25.09.2006)

http://www.interlex.it/675/amonti86.htm

Illegal Wiretapping and files: quis custodiet custodes? (only in Italian,

25.09.2006)