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BEWARE OF TELEPHONE INTERVIEWS BY DATA COLLECTION COMPANIES

It could be the crime of privacy violation

As per the kind request sent to us by Dr. Angelo Passini, President of the AIISF of Messina, we inform you of the problem reported in the epigraph, which has also been the subject of a legal opinion, and for which dissemination through our site has been requested. (Messina Order of Doctors)
It has happened that some companies that formally deal with data collection have carried out telephone interviews in medical offices and/or provided doctors with files concerning the activity of the ISFs, effectively carrying out direct monitoring on the activity of individual scientific representatives in their respective areas of competence in order to exercise control over them.
This way of operating could even constitute the crime of violation of privacy, but the doctors who participated, both by answering the telephone interviews and by collecting information through material sent to their offices, probably did not perceive the seriousness of their involvement.
In fact, through their information, some Pharmaceutical Representatives could have serious repercussions on their professional activity.
This is because often the way of working of the ISFs, during their professional visits aimed at a more profitable scientific information carried out on certain lines of pharmaceutical products, is not always in line with the commercial standards and the productivity logics imposed by the Pharmaceutical Companies.
This differentiation in the way of operating mainly derives from the human and confidential relationship existing between the individual doctors and the drug sales reps, which allows for more friendly and certainly much more productive information to be provided for everyone.
By virtue of the above, many ISFs, not informed of this method of processing their personal data and unaware that market research companies were collecting data related to their names, have suffered complaints from their reference companies capable of unlawfully "revealing" their personal data and the methods of carrying out their work.
Therefore, in the event of subsequent recourse to the complaints by the Whistleblowers against their Companies, the only defense viable by the latter could be to report the doctor who, knowingly or not, provided that information.
Given the difficult times and the seriousness of the situation that would arise, colleagues are invited to take due consideration of the above.
Therefore, in order to disseminate the problem widely, it is possible to view the legal opinion by clicking on the reference icon shown below.
 

See the legal opinion

Source: http://www.omceo.me.it/index.php?news=603

 

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Fedaiisf Federazione delle Associazioni Italiane degli Informatori Scientifici del Farmaco e del Parafarmaco