Source: Altalex

The Garante per la protezione dei dati personali issued Provvedimento 26 marzo 2026, n. 196 giving a favourable technical opinion on the digital psychological support service "Ascoltami", to be integrated into the Piattaforma Unica. The service targets students in the last year of middle school and the first two years of high school, is voluntary and free, and is activated through the Piattaforma Unica. Its legal foundations are identified as decreto-legge n. 75/2023 (which established the Piattaforma Unica) and Legge 30 dicembre 2024, n. 207 (which created a pilot fund for expert psychologists to prevent school dropout and demotivation).

The Garante approved an architecture that separates data controllers: the Ministero dell'Istruzione e del Merito (MIM) is controller only for administrative purposes (e.g., managing contribution applications, monitoring payments, technical access management), while psychologists are autonomous controllers for clinical sessions and generated health data. The CNOP holds data about professionals and technology providers are named processors. The decision demands a clear distinction between consent to data processing and informed consent to the medical act; for minors, parental responsibility remains central with parents submitting applications and giving consent. Crisis management requires psychologists to notify guardians when serious fragility is detected, whereas communication to schools is restricted to the strictly necessary and requires documented consent. Technically, the service uses a dedicated application embedded in Piattaforma Unica, applies pseudonymization via unique alphanumeric session codes, limits IP logging to security purposes with strict access controls, expressly prohibits the Ministry from recording or retaining videoconferences, and requires privacy information in language understandable to minors. The Garante’s favourable opinion frames the initiative as a significant move to widen access to care while acknowledging cyber-security risks inherent in a national fragmented database.