La deontologia di chi produce e detiene dati statistici: dalla possibilità alla certezza dell'accesso

Abstract

The recently approved "Codice di deontologia e buona condotta per il trattamento di dati personali per scopi statistici e scientifici" greatly improves the Italian legislation on the privacy of personal data towards easier access to databases by researchers who intend to use them for non-commercial scientific purposes. However, the new legislation simply allows the researcher to access more and better data, it does not guarantee that the institutions that collect and posses these databases will share them with the scientists. To this end, we propose the introduction of a legal obligation - at least for public institutions - to share with researchers - at least those employed by universities - all statistical data that might be requested for non-commercial scientific studies. In this article, we document our own personal experience of requesting data from public administrations, showing how they are often reluctant, if not openly refuse, to invest resources in the dissemination of basic statistical information for research purposes. Not only would the legal obligation we propose allow these institutions to devote specific resources for the dissemination of statistical data, but it would also protect them from political pressure.