GDPR Article 9 Special Categories and Codice Privacy Article 167(2)

Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Art. 9; D.Lgs. 196/2003, Art. 167(2)

A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.

What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.

In force since 25 May 2018.

A sensitive categories rule binding public and private bodies.

As of 24 August 2026.

What it requires

Obtain an explicit General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Article 9(2) legal basis before processing biometric, genetic, or health data of a person in Italy, and treat unlawful special-category processing as a Codice Privacy Article 167(2) criminal exposure, not only an administrative one.
Do not treat a publicly posted photograph or recording as freely processable for identification purposes; the Garante's Clearview AI decision found no valid legal basis for exactly that.

What it reaches

Excludes recording-derived identifiersNo

What this law does

Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Article 9(1) lists biometric data processed for unique identification as a special category. The Codice Privacy adds no separate biometric-specific statute but does add its own Article 167(2) criminal offense specifically for unlawful Article 9-10 processing, and Provvedimento n. 146/2019's security and consent prescriptions for genetic and health data.

The Garante's Clearview AI decision confirms Italy applies no general publicly-available carve-out: processing publicly posted facial images to build a biometric identification database brought them within Article 9's special-category regime regardless of prior public availability.

When LexLint raises it

processes_biometrics
processes_voice
high_risk_decisions

Read the law

GDPR Art. 9(1)
D.Lgs. 196/2003 Art. 167(2); Garante Provvedimento n. 50/2022 (Clearview AI)

Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.

Back to the example · Lint your app