The Commissioner’s predecessor did sterling work in forcing the government to reveal that data retention was happening. Following the passing of the Data Retention Directive in the EU late last year he has this to add.
Transposition of the Directive into Irish law will offer
an opportunity to review the provisions of the 2005
Act. From a data protection perspective, it would be
helpful if the revised Irish legislation limited the right
of Garda access to cases of serious crime and if the
safeguards against potential abuse of such access
rights were strengthened.
Yep, I’m sure we can look forward to that, all right.