Italy's privacy authority has asked the government for 'clarifications' over its posting on the Internet of millions of citizens' income and tax details.

The Italian government made a shock move last week by putting every citizen's declarable taxable income on the internet.

The move had been authorised by Vincenzo Visco, a deputy economy minister in Premier Romano Prodi's outgoing government.

It allowed the country's tax agency to publicly post Italians' returns for 2005, including figures such as total revenue, income tax paid and other personal information.

The action is regarded as part of a crackdown on tax evasion, but has provoked protests about privacy rights.

Giovanni Buttarelli is Secretary General of the Italian Data Protection Agency.

"Under our knowledge, in no country all over the world is it possible to consult thousands and millions of data to copy this data to make research not only related to one person, so there is a big difference between this case and other forms of selected transparency followed by other countries."

Some Italians are delighted at the chance to find out how much their neighbours, colleagues, and high-profile celebrities earn. But many more are irritated on the government's blunt decision.

Claudio is a citizen in the capital Rome.

"I think it is a violation of privacy, because I feel that these things should be kept secret in a sense."

The website containing the tax details attracted huge amount of visitors in a short time, but has been suspended by an order from Italy's Privacy Authority. The authority said it presented "clear and serious problems" under the country's privacy rules.