Tutela dei dati personali

All documents published in the Ancestors Portal are freely available. Italian law separately regulates the consultation of documents containing personal data on the one hand, and their dissemination on the other, and prohibits the publication of personal data found in archival documents in ways that offend the dignity of those concerned.

The Codice dei beni culturali e del paesaggio (d. lgs. 42/2004, art. 122) regulates the searchability of archival documents and dictates the exclusion from free consultation for 40 or 70 years of documents containing certain categories of personal data (the data protected for the longest time are those revealing health, sex life or confidential family relationships). In addition, the Codice in materia di protezione dei dati personali (d.lgs. 196/2003, art. 93) allows only after 100 years the disclosure of documents ‘that make the mother identifiable if she has declared that she does not wish to be named’.

Instead the Regole deontologiche per il trattamento a fini di archiviazione nel pubblico interesse o per scopi di ricerca storica (all. A.2 al d. lgs. 196/2003) dictate rules on the disclosure of personal data contained in archival documents (see in particular Article 11). These Rules must be put into practice not only when dealing with recent documents, but also when using, for example, documents from the Ancestor Portal. Among other things, the Deontological Rules state that, the user may disclose personal data if they are relevant and indispensable to the research and if they do not violate the dignity and confidentiality of persons. (art. 11, c. 4).