Marie Daly

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On November 18, 2021, the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) issued an opinion on several data retention cases before by the Court, following a long line of CJEU jurisprudence on this topic.

To give context to the issues considered in these cases, Europe’s experience of totalitarian regimes in the last century has shaped its approach to privacy rights.  This is evident in the GDPR and in the decisions of the CJEU to date.  But there remain tensions that are complex and difficult to deal with in this area — notably, the tension between individual rights to privacy and data protection on one hand, and the duty of the State to protect its population against security threats and crime on the other.  These tensions do not marry easily, as surveillance of personal electronic communications is increasingly demanded to detect and deal with crime and terrorism.

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Continue Reading Advocate General Releases Opinion in CJEU Referrals on Data Retention

On November 19, 2021, the European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) published its draft Guidelines 05/2021 on the Interplay between the application of Article 3 and the provisions on international transfers as per Chapter V of the GDPR (available here).  The draft guidelines are currently subject to a public consultation period that ends on January 31, 2022; interested stakeholders can submit their feedback here.

In this blog post, we provide a brief background on the issues addressed in the draft guidelines, and summarize the key takeaways.

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Continue Reading EDPB Publishes Draft Guidelines on Interplay of Article 3 GDPR and the GDPR’s Cross-Border Transfer Rules

On Thursday, September 2, 2021, the Irish Data Protection Commission (“DPC”) published its decision in the long-awaited inquiry it initiated into the data processing of WhatsApp Ireland Limited (“WhatsApp”) in December 2018.  It finds against WhatsApp, imposing a fine of €225 million.
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Continue Reading Irish DPC Finds Against WhatsApp

On Jul 22, 2021, the Irish Joint Committee on Justice (“Committee“) published a report that included a series of recommendations on the work of the Irish Data Protection Commission (“DPC“).  The Committee, made up of 14 politicians from across the political spectrum and drawn from both the Dáil (the elected first house) and Seanad (the senate), issued this report following a public hearing held on April 27, 2021 (see our prior blog post here).  The recommendations in the report address, among other things, concerns raised about the Irish DPC’s oversight and enforcement of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR“).
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Continue Reading Ireland’s Joint Committee on Justice Publishes Recommendations to Reform the Irish Data Protection Commission

The new standard contractual clauses (“SCCs“) issued by the European Commission (see our prior blog post here) continue to prove controversial.  Among other things, the SCCs require that the law of the European Union (“EU“) Member State underpinning them provides third-party beneficiary rights.  Most EU Member States are civil law jurisdictions that already provide such rights.  Ireland, however, is a common law jurisdiction like the U.S. and the UK, and as such, depends largely on evolving case law to define the scope of various rights and obligations.…
Continue Reading New Standard Contractual Clauses Raise Questions Under Irish Law

On May 20, 2021, there was a major ransomware attack on the Irish health system.  The centralized HSE (Health Service Executive), which provides and manages healthcare for the Irish population, was targeted on May 14 and has seen significant disruption since.  It has described the attack as a ‘zero-day threat with a brand new variant of the Conti ransomware.’

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Continue Reading Major Cyber-attack on Irish Health System Causes Commercial Concern

On April 27, 2021, the Irish Oireachtas Committee on Justice met in Dublin to consider recent written submissions received criticising the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC).  The meeting was divided into two hour-long meetings with the first meeting devoted to the criticisms of Max Schrems, the Austrian privacy campaigner, and Fred Logue, an Irish data protection lawyer.  The second meeting, the longer of the two, heard from Helen Dixon, the Data Protection Commissioner, and the Irish Council of Civil Liberties.

Ten politicians, including the Chair (a lawyer with data law experience), questioned each of the invitees on what was a limited agenda.  Each participant was limited to a five minute opening statement after which member politicians attending queried them.  Discussion of ongoing cases was not permitted.

The Committee scheduled Mr. Schrems and Ms. Dixon on separate panels, presumably to avoid a repeat of Ms. Dixon’s objection to the previous invitation from the European Parliament’s LIBE Committee proposing to hear from both together at the same hearing.  Each in turn were the key participants in their panel discussions.  Mr. Schrems repeated criticisms he has made previously and Ms. Dixon gave a strong defence of her office.…
Continue Reading Irish Parliamentary Committee Hearing Discusses Criticism of the Irish DPC