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The Italian Supreme Court convicted for the crime of identity theft a person that had created on an erotic chat a nickname with the initials of her former employer also providing her mobile number.
The defendant had argued that the crime did not arise because she had not pretended to be the claimant. Indeed, in the past the court had held that an identity theft occurs only when a person creates an email account with the personal details of another person misleading third parties on his identity.
However, in this last decision the court also held that the creation of the nickname referring to another person triggered the crime of identity theft since the crime arises “also when it is given to another person either a false name or a false status or a quality from which applicable laws trigger some legal consequences, being qualified as a “name” not only the first name but also any identity feature“. And, according to the court, nicknames to be used for communications on the Internet fall among identity features as they grant a virtual identity which is able to lead to consequences in the real life.
This is a very interesting decision since if a nickname with the mere initials of a person can trigger the crime of identity theft its scope appears very broad. However, the decision of the court might have been affected by the fact that the nickname was provided together with the person’s mobile number.
Finally, it is likely that this dispute will face also civil claims for privacy breach which on the basis of the reasoning of the Supreme Court would be triggered not only by the disclosure of the mobile number but also by the usage of the nickname which even if created by the defendant might be deemed as a personal data according to the reasoning of the court.
What is your view on the above? Feel free to contact me, Giulio Coraggio, if you want to discuss.
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