The only surprise is that this hasn’t happened here
Posted on May 01 2008 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
There has been outrage in Italy after the outgoing government published every Italian’s declared earnings and tax contributions on the internet.
The tax authority’s website was inundated by people curious to know how much their neighbours, celebrities or sports stars were making.
The Italian treasury suspended the website after a formal complaint from the country’s privacy watchdog.
The information was put on the site with no warning for nearly 24 hours.
Sour grapes?
The release of the information was one of the last acts of the outgoing centre-left government and has shocked many tax-shy Italians, says the BBC’s Mark Duff in Milan.
But it was also hugely popular, and within hours the site was overwhelmed and impossible to access.
The finance ministry described the move as a bid to improve transparency.
Critics condemned it as an outrageous breach of privacy.
And those critics are right.
