Direction in 2012 audit to protect users from data harvesting 3rd party apps but was ignored until 2014
Speaking ahead of the appearance of Facebook Vice President for Global Policy Joel Kaplan at the Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan T.D. said: “Despite directions from the Data Protection Commissioner to protect the privacy of users from third party data harvesting, Facebook failed to act until it was too late.
“I will be asking why these changes took so long to be implemented and why they have treated their own user community so unfairly.
“Facebook and other technology companies and services providers are critical for the Irish economy but their future success and presence here will depend on us having a proper regulatory environment.
“The Taoiseach seems disinterested in this crucial issue of fair and firm regulation. One of his first acts was to drop the Digital Minister from his own department, he has been silent on the Cambridge Analytica scandal and in his visit to Facebook in November could only say that we would apply the same pro-business and free trade policies of the past.
“Such thinking is increasingly out of date and is not what we need. The digital revolution is still in its early stages. We have to make sure people are confident and can trust how their data is being used. This needs Facebook to change and the Irish Government to insist on higher standards in everything that is done here within our jurisdiction.”
Further info:
Eamon Ryan TD will present 20 questions to Facebook Vice-President for Global Policy Joel Kaplan at the Oireachtas Committee on Communications today and 14 to Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon. They can be found here.
