Information on the profession
Consolidation Act of the Laws of Public Safety -R.D.773/1931 (italian text)
Defensive Investigation in Criminal Proceedings (italian text)
Law on Privacy - L. 675/1996) (italian text)
Privacy Guarantor Authorization n. 6/99 (italian text)
Privacy Guarantor Authorization n. 1/99 (italian text)
In Italy private investigation is regulated by the "Consolidation Act of the Laws of Public Safety" (Royal Decree 773 of June 18, 1931) in chapter IV and in the relevant Regulations.
For many years this discipline has been considered outdated and insufficient, also because it jointly regulates two essentially different activities: that of supervision and custody of goods and that of investigations, raising doubts on the possible application to one of determinate laws laid down for the other.
Since 1964 our Italian private investigators have tried, without result, to obtain a professional Association and Roll.
In 1988 the defensive investigation in criminal proceedings was introduced and the work of the professional investigator expressly provided.
In 1996 the law on Privacy (Law 675 of 1931) considered the activity of private investigators among those which permit derogation of the general rules on the protection of personal data
- when the scope of the investigator is to assert or defend a right of the person who requests it (as these data reveal the state of health or sexual habits, the right in question must be of the same rank as that of the investigated person)
- in the case of defensive investigations in criminal court (provided by article 38 of the Implementation Provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure).
In particular, it is unnecessary to inform the person concerned when the personal data are collected from third parties and the investigated person cannot exercise the rights indicated in article 13 of the Law (among them that of being informed of the relevant treatments and of opposing treatment, as instead he may do in the case of commercial information) for all the time in which the development of the defensive investigations or the exercising of the right may be prejudiced (article 14).
The agreement of the person concerned to the data treatment is also excluded in the following cases:
- for the treatment of all types of public data, which may be known by anyone;
- for pre-contractual information;
- for the treatments necessary for the execution of legal obligations or obligations deriving from contracts of which the person concerned is part).
The private investigators were specifically authorised by the Privacy Guarantor (Authorisation No. 6/1998 and subsequent renewals) to treat the data revealing the state of health and sexual life with the precautions indicated in the provision and with reserve to start a special deontological code; it is established that, to be able to avail himself of this authorisation, the investigator (individual, company or organisation) must have the Prefectorial authorisation provided by article 13 of the Consolidation Act of the Laws of Public Safety and the assignment must be detailed and in written form; the internal collaborators must be appointed as persons responsible for or assigned the treatment and their activity supervised under the profile of observance of the rules and instructions issued by the owner, while the names of the other investigators assigned to carry out the investigations must be indicated in the assignment.
The private investigators were authorised by the Privacy Guarantor (Authorisation No. 1/1999) to treat the data regarding legal proceedings, in the cases indicated in it.
Since January 1st 2004, the Legislative Decree June 30th 2003 no. 196 has reorganized the privacy regulamentation, repealing Law 675/96. As for the private investigations, no substantial modifications have been introduced. For the English translation of the above laws, see http://www.garanteprivacy.it.