Personal Data Protection

All the documents published in the Antenati Portal can be freely consulted. Italian law regulates the consultation of documents containing personal data, and their dissemination, and prohibits the publication of personal data found in archival documents in ways that violate the dignity of those concerned.

The Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape (Legislative Decree 42/2004, Art. 122) regulates the consultability 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 period are those revealing health, sex life or confidential family relationships). Moreover, the Code on the Protection of Personal Data (Legislative Decree 196/2003, Art. 93) only allows the disclosure of documents ‘which make the mother identifiable if she has declared that she does not wish to be named’ after 100 years.

On the other hand, the Deontological Rules for processing for archiving purposes in the public interest or for historical research purposes (Annex A.2 to Legislative Decree 196/2003) lay down rules on the disclosure of personal data contained in archive 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 Ancestors Portal. Among other things, the state that

Deontological Rules 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).