Transparency operation, as many know, is not the title of the last James Bond movie, but the name of one of the first acts done by the Minister for Public Administration and Innovation , Hon Renato Brunetta .
The operation was launched in May 2008 with the publication on the website of the Ministry of staff data, organizational charts, number of officers, wages and salaries, telephone, e-mail and CVs of managers, as well as absence rates for office.
Much of this information was already public by law (under Articles. Legislative Decree No 54. 82/2005 and 1, paragraph 593, Act n. 296/2006) but is with the Law n. 69/2009 that Operation Transparency has been made ​​compulsory for all agencies, in particular, the 'art. 21, paragraph 1, provided that each Administration

is obliged to publish in its website the annual salaries, curriculum vitae, email addresses and phone numbers for professional managers and secretaries as well as municipal and provincial government to make, by the same means, the rates of absence and presence of more staff to separate management offices.

After publication in the Official Gazette of this rule is taken by adjusting the stroke of the various organizations that have included in their corporate websites above information.

With reference to how the public in an interesting post , Vittorio Pasteris has reported as many governments (central and local), with a technical device that covers the file robots.txt , prevent indexing of pages by the Transaction Transparency search engines, such device, far from being hidden, it is also suggested in a "transparent" on the website of the Ministry in a ' special page devoted to the application of Law no. 69/2009.
Many have commented on this report, evaluating the technical solution for the robots.txt file as an attempt of manipulation designed to frustrate, in fact, the much-ballyhooed oblietivi transparency.

The survey Pasteris is certainly interesting and I find it absolutely necessary to keep attention focused on the websites of Public Administration, but such analyzes do not find me in agreement.

Some readers know that in the past have been critical of the manner in which the operation was conducted Transparency (I mentioned it here and here ), but in this case, I believe that the accusations of wanting to hide the data are not shared.

First, it should be noted that the rule relating to the Transaction Transparency has a high level of application, others are cases in which the Government have not made scruple to disregard completely the provision of the law (just think of the obligation to indicate PEC in the box 'institutional home page of each site contained in the same Law. 69/2009, art. 34, and remained a dead letter ).

And then, there can be but notice how carefully on the robots.txt file looks absolutely duty to ensure compliance with the legislation on the confidentiality of personal data.

(Picture of sicaholic )

It is worth remembering, in fact, that just at the start of Operation Transparency the Authority for the Protection of Personal Data has been invested with many questions. On this point - in a very agreeable - Note by the Authority on 12 June 2008 underlined the need to prepare

appropriate measures aimed at enabling shapes proportionate consultability data, including in particular lists for each administration, available separately (on the basis of any links to web sites of the same government), without that users can easily edit them directly or find data using search engines.

From a legal point of view, in fact, the fact that a particular public figure is not to say that the same can be spread across the board, must necessarily be made about a reconciliation between the conflicting requirements of knowledge on the part of citizens and those of confidentiality of the persons to whom the information relates.

It is a principle not disputed in doctrine and stated in more than a measure of the same Privacy Guarantor (I report on all the important deliberation n. 17/2007 which is available here ).

In light of these canons, in order to avoid litigation and claims for damages, the government must always respect the principle of proportionality enshrined in Article. 11 of the Privacy Code (Legislative Decree no. 196/2003), with attention also to the " right to oblivion "of stakeholders. In fact, the data indexing Transaction Transparency by search engines may result in a disproportionate sacrifice the rights of persons to whom the data relate. It should not be overlooked that, through search engines, could be rebuilt a large number of data related to these subjects (more or less up to date and of a different nature) for reasons entirely different from those of transparency of the administration.

Consequently, given the increasing role that the PA will have Web sites , caution on the robots.txt file seems like a positive sign of attention to the confidentiality of those concerned, whose data are still public and made ​​available on the sites of individual governments.

Respect the privacy legislation signirica not have something to hide (or, worse, to want to hide something), but simply having regard to the rights and interests of all.