PagineGialle

What PagineGialle is

PagineGialle is the historic Italian Yellow Pages, now operated online by Italiaonline SpA. It offers a searchable directory of Italian businesses, embedded listing widgets that publishers can place on their own sites, and a digital advertising network that combines display banners with a retargeting pixel. The brand is one of the most recognised local search products in Italy and is often integrated into local news sites, lifestyle portals and SME websites.

What data and cookies PagineGialle collects

The embedded widget and the advertising network set first party cookies on paginegialle.it and third party cookies on partner domains such as pgadv.it. Typical identifiers include a session cookie, a long lived visitor identifier, an ad attribution cookie and a retargeting pixel that calls the Italiaonline ad servers. The pixel also collects the IP address, the user agent, the page URL and basic interaction signals such as clicks on listings and ad impressions.

GDPR and ePrivacy implications

The advertising and retargeting cookies are not strictly necessary, so Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive and the Italian Garante guidelines of 10 June 2021 require prior informed consent before they are written. The processing of the identifiers for personalised advertising relies on consent under Article 6(1)(a) GDPR. Legitimate interest is not a valid basis for the marketing pixel according to the Italian Garante, the CNIL and the EDPB opinion 8/2024 on consent or pay models.

Consent and user controls

The PagineGialle widget and the advertising pixel must be loaded only after the visitor has accepted the marketing or advertising category in the cookie banner. Refusal must be as easy as acceptance, the banner must list Italiaonline as a third party recipient and the cookie policy must describe the retargeting purpose. Visitors keep the right to oppose profiling under Article 21 GDPR and to request deletion of their identifiers under Article 17 GDPR.

Data transfers and hosting

Italiaonline hosts PagineGialle in Italian data centres located in Assago and Milan. There is no systematic transfer of personal data outside the EEA for the directory itself. Some advertising partners reached through the PagineGialle ad network may rely on subprocessors established in the United States, in which case Italiaonline declares standard contractual clauses and a transfer impact assessment in its public privacy policy.

Practical compliance steps

Configure the consent management platform to block the PagineGialle widget and the pgadv pixel until the marketing category is accepted, declare Italiaonline SpA as a third party recipient in the privacy policy, link to the Italiaonline cookie information page, set short retention periods for the advertising identifiers, document the integration in the Article 30 records and provide a clear opt out link inside the cookie preference centre.