The Italian CV: the privacy line everyone still adds

Italian CVs keep more personal detail than northern European ones, and end with a line that has outlived the law requiring it.

The shape of it

	Italian CV
Length	1-2 pages
Photo	common
Date of birth, nationality	common
Privacy authorisation	expected, though no longer legally required
Order	reverse-chronological

The privacy authorisation

Every Italian CV ends with a line authorising the employer to process personal data. It is the single most distinctive feature of the format, and its status is widely misunderstood.

The legal position: since the GDPR was implemented in Italy through D.Lgs. 101/2018, explicit consent is no longer technically required. An employer can process a candidate’s data on the basis of legitimate interest or pre-contractual necessity. The clause is not, strictly, a legal obligation.

The practice: it is still expected, still added by nearly everyone, and its absence is noticed. Recruiters and HR systems are habituated to it, and some screening processes still flag CVs without it.

The current standard wording:

Autorizzo il trattamento dei miei dati personali ai sensi del Regolamento UE 2016/679 (GDPR) e del D.Lgs. 196/2003 come modificato dal D.Lgs. 101/2018.

Put it at the very end, in small type. Older formulations referencing only D.Lgs. 196/2003 are out of date and date the document.

Photo and personal details

A photo is common, as are date of birth and nationality. Worth knowing: a photograph is itself sensitive data, since it can reveal ethnicity, which is part of why the practice is slowly receding in larger and international companies.

For a multinational operating in Italy, a CV without a photo is unremarkable. For a smaller Italian firm, including one is the safer read.

The Europass question

Europass, the EU’s standardised CV template, has a stronger presence in Italy than in most member states, and public-sector calls sometimes require it explicitly.

Outside those cases, it is not the better choice. The format is rigid, verbose and visually undifferentiated, and private-sector recruiters see hundreds of identical documents. Use Europass when it is asked for, and a normal CV otherwise.

Sections

• Dati personali: name, city, phone, email, often date of birth
• Esperienza lavorativa: reverse-chronological
• Istruzione e formazione
• Competenze linguistiche: CEFR levels
• Competenze informatiche
• The privacy authorisation, last