A Law Which Aims for Identity Theft

[qwer1234]

I want to build a web site about a niche which I know well and I also want to put AdSense or banners on it, to pay for the hosting and to earn some extra money.

But there is one big problem:
I live in Spain and there is an absurd Spanish law (LSSI), which says that you have to write on your web site the following: Your name, Your address, Your email, Your phone number and your NIF (which is your Social Security Number, in the case of the USA).
If you don’t write all this personal data on your web site, you may be fined from 3.000 to 600.000 euros! Also I should mention that web sites are regularly watched here.

I am afraid to give out so much personal data, especially the NIF, as there is a real danger of identity theft.
What would you do in my situation?

[bill]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld qwer1234.

That's a tough question to answer as we don't have many lawyers from Spain here...and even if we did it probably wouldn't be best to dispense legal advice via a forum. The best advice in a situation like this would be for you to consult a local lawyer to see whether there might be ways to avoid compliance with this law.

[jdMorgan]

Also investigate whether Spain has something similar to the TIN and EIN as used the U.S.

These are "Social Security Number" equivalents for use by small business taxpayers and employers, meaning "Taxpayer Identification Number" and "Employer Identification Number" respectively.

Take a look at a big corporate site from Spain and look to see what name and number they use; If it's not the personal name and number of one of the individual officers or employees of the company, then there must be a similar TIN/EIN system in Spain.

Jim

[qwer1234]

All the big Spanish web sites have a corporate tax identification number. If you are a business you are required to register your web site domain with the mercantile register.
As for a private person this (the NIF) is the only number which can be put on the site. The problem is that the NIF+my name means giving out all my personal data, something that I don't like to.

Also, I am a student and don't work, which means that I am not tax registered. If I register as an "autonomous worker" I will have to pay 230euros each month (Social Security), regardless of the amount that I earn from my web site (which may be something like 50euros a month the first year or two). And I will have also to put the NIF (the same number) on my web site.

It seems that moving to another country or not starting the web site are the only options.
The prupose of this law seems to be the demotion of the development of the Internet in Spain!