A new package of measures against the scourge of wild telemarketing after the recent confiscation of the databases of some call centers: to launch it was the Privacy Guarantor, an intervention welcomed with satisfaction by consumer associations and the Minister for Enterprises, Adolfo Urso, who now asks for a close confrontation to arrive at a definitive tightening.
In particular, the Authority adopted three corrective and sanctioning measures, originating from various investigations: in the telephone sector TIM was fined over 7 million euros, while in the energy sector Green Network and Sorgenia were fined 237,800 euros and 676,956 euros respectively. Tim was accused of inadequate surveillance of abusive call centers, unrelated to his official network. But also other aspects such as - explains the Authority - the sometimes inadequate response to requests to exercise the rights of the interested parties and the erroneous publication of personal data in public telephone directories without the consent of the interested parties. The two energy companies, always explains the Privacy Guarantor, were instead sanctioned for not having prepared suitable measures to guarantee the traceability of all the operations carried out on the platforms for uploading contract proposals and for not having demonstrated the full knowledge of all the treatments carried out within the telemarketing chain.
The main intent of this new intervention - explains the Authority - is to hit all possible access doors of the undergrowth within the information and commercial assets of telephone and energy companies. As specified several times by the Guarantor, in fact, without adequate control by the client companies of the entire chain of operations that leads to the conclusion of a contract, the "undergrowth" of illegal call centers will continue to receive - almost always in violation of tax and labor law rules, as well as those on data protection - that remuneration that allows their survival and, Indeed, proliferation.
Urso then wrote to the presidents of the Authority for the protection of personal data and Agcom hoping for a comparison to "soon reach solutions that increasingly protect consumers from abuses in the telemarketing sector". "I expect - added the minister - that we intervene more and more effectively. It is no longer tolerable that this instrument should be systematically circumvented by certain operators. I believe it is right that we also intervene with further more restrictive technical and regulatory measures, to combat illegal activities, so that abuses in the telemarketing sector are put an end to it".