At a meeting with representatives of the hospitality sector on Monday, the Balearic government agreed - for now at any rate - not to require bars and restaurants to collect data on customers who eat and drink inside premises.
This regulation had been expected to be confirmed this week, but the government has withdrawn it. The intention is to look for "technological alternatives" that will be "voluntary".
The government had wanted records to be kept (for a maximum of thirty days) to facilitate contact tracing if the need arose. However, lawyers and the Consubal consumers association in the Balearics argued that this data gathering would be "an attack on privacy". The legality was questioned and they insisted that there had to be "other means for protecting" the hospitality sector.
The government was represented at the meeting with the presidents of the CAEB and Pimem restaurants associations by the director-general for tourism, Rosana Morillo, and Rúben Castro, the director of the IBASSAL institute for labour health and safety. Another issue for discussion, the installation of air purifiers, was not decided upon as there has yet to be confirmation of the amount of financial aid to be made available to establishments for this installation.