Actually this post is not very much related to Web 2.0, but nonetheless talks about a threat for the emerging online social environment, i.e. the very fabric of Web 2.0.

During last summer, Italy government passed a new law that requires Internet Cafe managers to check and make photocopies of every customer’s passport. Accessing Internet, phone, or fax is no longer an anonymous activity. Furthermore Internet Cafes have to document which computer have been used, login and logout time. All the computer usage will be logged.

It’s not a fresh news, but this recent Christian Science Monitor article made the law quite popular among traveller forums and blogs.

But while Italy has a healthy protest culture, no major opposition to the law has emerged.

Sad but true: nobody is complaining. The italian blogosphere is silent. I think there is one explanation: nobody knows about the new law! I couldn’t find major newspaper articles about it and Internet Cafes are mainly used by immigrants and tourists, and very seldom by residents. So, nobody is aware of the new limitations. This ignorance is more frightening than the law itself …

Thanks to security guru Bruce Schneier for discovering the CSM article, and thanks for gathering so many interesting comments from his civil rights conscious readers. Here is one of them:

How much data is needed to be collected until the bulk data becomes a fuzzy, worthless snowstorm? How in the hell is this going to stop “terrorism” (note the quotes)?

Yes, who is going to collect the paper photocopies? Who will train the managers to detect fake Moldavian passports? I’m pretty sure Italy cannot afford the cost of properly process this data …

And, following this dangerous path, what about the owners of unprotected WiFi networks? Will the government hold them liable for supporting terrorism?

I’m afraid this is not just another example of byzantine bureaucracy, this is the making of a police state …