Adiconsum – the EASY awareness coordinator in partnership with Save the Children Italy – are fighting back from the consumer's corner and have created a special help desk to provide consumers with information, technical assistance and legal advice. Several press releases were issued, press conferences were held in conjunction with police forces and announcements on the EASY and Adiconsum web sites were made.

The case of Peppermint, a German record company
Thousands of unaware Italian consumers, whose net surfing behaviour was surreptitiously observed, have recently received a letter from law firm Mahlknecht & Rottensteiner accusing them of illegal file-sharing music covered by copyright.
The lawyers representing the German record company Peppermint, is demanding a payment of 400 euros from the alleged culprits, along with a promise to never re-offend, under the threat of taking legal proceedings against them.

This could be interpreted as just copyright law enforcement. But how did the private company come into possession of a great quantity of data on users’ web surfing behaviours without informing them?
Easy! Peppermint entrusted Logistep AG, a Swiss company, to intercept the IP addresses that univocally identify users on the Net and then ISPs have provided personal data of users detected, in evident violation of privacy law.

Adiconsum has taken a unequivocal position: intrusions on the private life of citizens should be carried out only by the Police and the Magistracy acting in the public interest and not by a private company for its own utility. So Adiconsum has asked the Government, the Authority for the Safeguard of Privacy and the Authority for Competition to promptly intervene protecting consumers accused by Peppermint on a mere presumption.

Studenti.it
A recent online fraud, which Adiconsum denounced, concerns again an online privacy infringement. Hundreds of Italian students were deceived very cleverly afterlegally downloading school notes, didactic and university materials, handbooks and other documents from some web sites mainly devoted to students. An invoice of 150 euros from New Europa Media was delivered to their home claiming a “regular” sale contract.

In this case too, Adiconsum provided unlucky and unaware consumers with prompt technical and legal assistance, and presented a complaint to the Financial Police dealing with Cyber-crime against the firm for improper acquisition of users’ personal data while surfing the Internet and fraudulent contract stipulation.

Paola Pendenza, Adiconsum, EASY awareness Node

Keywords: file sharing, copyright, privacy, consumers rights, online frauds
Audiences: youth and adult consumers