EPISODE 113: Big Tech's data dream

Una and Andrea's United Ireland

As Ireland continues to be home for many Big Tech HQ's, the responsibility for enforcing privacy laws lies with us too. This week, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties released a report that suggests Ireland is failing to enforce these laws on these companies. The report comes on the back of a recent case with WhatsApp where the Irish Data Protection Commissioner's suggested fine of 30-50 million was pushed back on by our EU counterparts in the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), which oversees the GDPR and ended up coming in at 225m. Obviously financial penalties are but a thorn in the side of big tech, and enforcement of the privacy laws with order's to bring data systems into compliance is much more pertinent. To discuss this report and to offer suggestions on what needs to happen to bring Big Tech under control is Dr Jonny Ryan, Senior Fellow at ICCL and the Open Markets Institute and co-author of the report.