The Italian Data Protection Authority launches public consultation on webscraping

On 22 November 2023, the Italian Data Protection Authority (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali) has launched a public consultation on webscraping directed to websites operators (either public or private) established in Italy or offering their services in Italy on which personal data are publicly disclosed.

The public consultation focuses on the security measures adopted (or which can be adopted) to prevent massive collection of freely available data by third parties for the purposes of training AI models.

Next Steps

• The public consultation will last 60 days.

• Operators, experts and trade associations can participate by sending their inputs to the Italian Data Protection Authority.

• The Italian Data Protection Authority will take action after the public consultation. Such actions might include public orders or warnings as well as urgent measures.

Authored by Massimiliano Masnada and Elisabetta Nunziante.