Tusla: questions to answer about data protection
Under Article 37.1 of the GDPR, all public bodies are required to have a Data Protection Officer (a DPO). The DPO is the person in the organization who is charged with ensuring the organization complies with data protection legislation. For organisations with large databases of …
Time for Ireland’s Data Protection Commission to step up on Google Location Tracking
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission has said it is not investigating Google in relation to the secret tracking of the location of Android users, despite Google’s EU headquarters being located in Dublin. The DPC claims that because of some paperwork delay on Google’s part in ‘incorporating …
Applying for a passport? You don’t need a Public Services Card.
A Public Services Card is not required to get a passport, although the Passport Office website incorrectly suggests that it is. A member of the public, Mr A, recently approached us. He wanted to travel abroad on a family holiday but his passport had expired …
DPC investigation into Public Services Card
We welcome the Data Protection Commissioner’s decision to extend her investigation into the Public Services Card. The Commissioner’s investigation is unprecedented in the Irish public sector. The card is essentially a national identity card. The database that lies behind it is an unofficial national population …
Tell your TD to stop the PSC becoming a private sector ID card
We’re sorry to have to keep banging on about the Public Services Card. But this is important, and urgent. One of the few limits on the PSC becoming a national ID card is a section which makes it an offence for private bodies to use …
Taoiseach rejects linking of ‘Public Services Card’ to social media
Should your PSC be linked to your social media account? Jim Daly, an Irish government minister thinks so. After DRI solicitor, Simon McGarr intervened in a TV debate, The Taoiseach (Prime Minister) has firmly rejected the plan, saying “the Government has no plans to link the …
Public meeting on the public services card and national biometric database
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties and Digital Rights Ireland will be hosting a public meeting on the introduction of public service cards and the national biometric database. The meeting will take place from 11am – 1pm on Wednesday, 11th October 2017 at Buswells Hotel, …
Is the Public Services Card Mandatory to access state services?
Over the last week there has been much controversy over the decision of the Department of Social Protection that the ‘Public Services Card’ is mandatory. It is mandatory, they say, not only to claim a social welfare benefit, but to access any number of state …
New ‘egovernment’ strategy is a national identity card by the back door
The government has promised that the Public Services Card would not be mandatory. But now the government has put forward an ‘eGovernment strategy’ that will force every citizen, young or old, rich or poor to have this card. You will not be able to travel …
Submissions on the Data Protection Bill
What will future Irish data protection law look like? Many of the decisions have already been made in Brussels and Strasbourg, but the EU General Data Protection Regulation still leaves quite a bit of discretion to individual Member States. The Department of Justice and Equality …
Extending Irish interception of communications to the Internet
Earlier this week the Department of Justice published a long awaited policy document on amending Irish law relating to interception of communications. In a welcome break with tradition the Department has been more willing to engage with outsiders and in a meeting today with the IHREC, ICCL …
DRI challenges independence of Ireland’s Data Protection Authority
Digital Rights Ireland has instructed its lawyers to serve legal papers on the Irish government, challenging whether the office of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner is truly an independent data protection Authority under EU law. Ireland’s position as the EU’s centre for technology multinational companies …