The opposition Partido Popular has asked the European Commission to clarify whether the new tourist data register that will oblige the sector to collect dozens of data on its customers respects EU data protection regulations for the security and confidentiality of personal information. In a parliamentary question sent to the EU executive, the head of the PP delegation in the European Parliament, Dolors Montserrat, and the Balearic PP MEP Rosa Estaràs ask the Community services if they are aware of the Royal Decree whose entry into force is scheduled for December 2 and if they believe it is compatible with the Community framework.
The letter warns that most of the agencies, companies and other actors in the tourism sector are SMEs want Brussels to assess whether it believes that they have the technical means and personnel ‘necessary to comply with the confidentiality requirements’ established by the European Union.
The new register promoted by the government is known by its detractors as ‘Big Brother Tourism’ because of the doubts raised by the obligation to collect more than 40 types of personal data of customers in hotels, rental agencies and others, including sensitive information such as the degree of kinship of those who make a reservation or their IBAN bank code.
‘We cannot offload the responsibility for data security onto companies, nor can we involve the state in private matters,’ Montserrat warned in a subsequent statement, referring to the obligation of tourist establishments to transfer the information collected to the Secretary of State for Security and the risk of a fine of up to 43,000 euros for those who fail to comply.
In addition, the PP accuses the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande Marlaska, of promoting a register that is a ‘nonsense’ that ‘could affect one of the main economic sectors’ in Spain, such as tourism. Estarás has stressed that this system ‘is going to make the registration process very complicated’ in tourist destinations in Spain, which could harm the competitiveness of the sector against other competitors abroad.