Public Register of Oppositions, what is it and how to register?

Public Register of Oppositions

We have to admit it, the theme of "demon-possessed switchboards" and telephone calls from call centers for commercial purposes has become so frequent over the years as to be considered almost the norm. However, the truth is different and, thanks to tools such as the Public Register of Oppositions, it is possible to put an end to the often harassing behavior of some companies that often lead us to waste time during our days.

What is it? is therefore the Public Register of Oppositions? How do you register and how is it possible, thanks to this system, to get rid of calls from call centers and automatic switchboards both on landlines and mobiles once and for all?

What what is the Public Opposition Register?

"The Public Opposition Register - established with the D.P.R. n° 178/2010 and updated with the D.P.R. n° 149/2018 – is a free service for the user which allows the user to oppose the use for advertising purposes of the telephone numbers of which he is the holder and of the corresponding associated postal addresses, present in the public directories, by the operators who they carry out marketing activities by telephone and/or paper mail"

This is the opening message of the site made available by the Italian authorities containing all the information regarding the functioning of the Public Opposition Register.

Why register?

Over the years, our personal information, including our telephone number, has been acquired by different entities, for the most diverse purposes.

Starting therefore from the public telephone registers (the first reference goes to the white/yellow pages directories), someone has it was soon thought to be able to exploit this mass of information for telemarketing and telephone sales of goods and services.

“ With the Public Opposition Register it is possible to block the processing of one's personal data, present in the lists public telephone numbers, by operators who use these directories to carry out marketing activities via telephone and/or paper mail "

Starting from 27 July 2022, the Public Opposition Register will also be extended to telephone numbers not present in public directories, including cell phones. The new service will be managed by the Ugo Bordoni Foundation on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Development (MISE).

How to register?

The importance of this service made available and defense of the citizen, it remains to understand how to register in the Public Register of Oppositions.

There are four ways available to users:

Through the dedicated form made available on this web page Through the toll-free number 800 265 265 . By email scription@registrodelleopposizioni.it By sending a registered letter to: "MANAGER OF THE PUBLIC OPPOSITION REGISTER - SUBSCRIBERS"

ROME NOMENTANO OFFICE

POST BOX 7211

00162 ROME RM

For any of the methods chosen, you must have access to the following information, which is essential to complete the procedure:

Tax code or VAT number of the telephone line holder Identity card of the telephone line holder Telephone numbers for who want to request the opposition All the information concerning the specific methods of the four options made available to the user can be viewed on the dedicated page.

Will the Public Opposition Register permanently save us from spam?

Although this tool is certainly a fundamental weapon in the fight against "wild calls", some clarifications must be made. The Public Opposition Register was born as a defense weapon that allowed us to cancel our consent regarding the public registers in which our data and contact information are contained.

Most companies can however count on “alternative” registers (created over the years with more or less lawful methods with mostly unaware approval by the users), effectively making the registration work less effective.

To put remedy to this circumstance, which also sees telephone operators as protagonists whenever you carry out a simple number change procedure and following "slowness" in transposing your previous registration in the Opposition Register, the advice is to take cover of the art. 83, par. 5, of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU Regulation 2016/679):

“ The application of administrative fines of up to 20 million euros or for companies, up to 4% of turnover total annual worldwide for the previous year, in the event of non-compliance with the RPO by telemarketing operators, together with the cancellation of your telephone number from the registers of the call center that contacted you ".

What to do to defend ourselves further?

Technology also comes to meet us with other tools, easier and more immediate to use, to be exploited while waiting for the times linked to the Public Opposition Register.

One of these , perhaps the most effective, is to activate the filter option within the Phone application of your smartphone. More and more manufacturers are including this option, present for example in the stock application created by Google.

In doing so, suspicious numbers reported by users as spam will be intelligently filtered by our smartphone, going to make it easier to block them, in order to get rid of this annoying plague once and for all.