Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Hawkes for his thorough overview of the directives. What is the likely timeline for the adoption of the package and, then, its implementation into Irish law?

In the context of the surveillance carried out by the United States and EU member states, I am concerned by two aspects of the right to privacy. The first is the right to be forgotten, the right to demand the deletion of data. The proposed regulation states, “controllers have to take reasonable steps to delete data, taking into account available technology and the means available to the controller”. Is this adequately enforceable?

The second aspect is that of consent, a thorny issue. In the new regulation the Commission states that whenever consent is required for data processing, it will have to be given explicitly rather than be assumed. Again, that sounds good, but, in the context of the surveillance we now know about, how is that a real proposition? How can we have confidence that consent would be required in that way?