The new article 2-terdecies, of the Italian Privacy Code (introduced by Legislative Decree 101/2018), expressly rules on the data protection rights of the deceased.
According the Italian Privacy Code, the rights of access, rectification, cancellation, limitation, portability, opposition and the rights relating to fully automated decisions relating to personal data concerning deceased subjects may be exercised by those who have an interest of their own, or act to protect the data subject, or for family reasons worthy of protection.
So, basically, the group of individuals entitled to manage the data pertaining to a deceased persons on a social media include not only relatives but also: a) the ones who have an interest of their own; b) the ones acting on behalf of the deceased person to protect her interests; c) those who have a family reasons deserving protection.
In life the data subject may limit those rights by expressly, specifically, freely and with informed consent disposing of them. However, the aforementioned article 2-terdecies, Italian Privacy Code, establishes that the data subject’s limitations cannot be detrimental to the exercise by third parties of patrimonial rights deriving from the death of the data subject and of their rights to defend their interests in court.
The Italian Privacy Code is available in Italian at https://www.garanteprivacy.it…
For more information on how data privacy could affect your social media account, Francesca Giannoni-Crystal and Federica Romanelli.
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