Ireland’s data protection neutrality questioned by EU heavyweights

All EU citizens are to have the same digital rights.

Ireland is at the centre of a storm over data protection and privacy, with Germany and France saying they do not trust the country to be independent.

With 29 of the world’s 30 biggest internet companies located in Ireland, the Data Protection Office will play a pivotal role in implementing EU rules.

Junior Department of Foreign Affairs minister Dara Murphy hit back at accusations that Ireland was too business-friendly and that the regulator could not be trusted to guard privacy rights.

“Criticism from Germany and others has been unfair,” he said. “We have a very proud tradition of independent regulators who will be bound by the agreed EU legislation.”

For the first time, the same rules will apply to all EU citizens and each country will have a watchdog where anybody can complain if they believe their privacy rights under the law has been violated.

This complaint will be sent to the country where the company involved is located — in most cases Ireland. The Irish Commissioner will then have to rule whether the EU law has been breached.

If any of the parties disagree with the decision, they can appeal to a board of the data protection commissioners of the 28 EU member states.

Mr Murphy agreed that Ireland took a different attitude than many other countries to business.

“We believe in engagement with business, especially when you are dealing with evolving technology,” he said. “It is important that the Data Protection Commissioner sits down and has a discussion about what is allowable and not, and that has led to an idea that the relationship was too close between companies and the commissioner.”

When companies had to be audited, as Facebook was twice by the previous commissioner, they were recognised as being extremely robust,” said Mr Murphy.

At the time, though. France and Germany were critical, saying reforms on the data Facebook could hold and its privacy policies did not go far enough, while the Dutch authority said it was unable to regulate IT companies based in Ireland.

An analysis of leaked EU and member state documents said 87% of 151 changes demanded by governments were to lower privacy protections. Germany, Britain, and Ireland led the push for lighter touch rules on privacy, they said.

The legislation is expected to insist that people have to actively agree to have their data shared, and have the right to access their data, to be forgotten, to erasure, and to object to what is being held.

At the same time, member states want to be able to profile their citizens if warranted — something privacy advocates say allows them to spy on people without a real reason.

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