Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Can the witnesses reassure me that if, taking a topical example, somebody in Northern Ireland wanted to influence the pro-life, pro-choice issue here, there is no control or sanction in electoral or data protection law that can stop someone putting €1 million worth of selective advertising into that? The Democratic Unionist Party, DUP, did it in respect of Brexit but that is not a negative comment on the DUP. It saw that loophole and used it.

I echo Senator O'Reilly's comment about the need for a clear opportunity to opt out. I am probably one of the least computer literate people in this room and someone like me just brushes aside little messages about cookies and privacy policy. I just want to read an article. I never stop to think what the little pop-up message means but it should be possible to develop pop-up information packages, which are mandatory and are directed by the commission, on service providers in Ireland. In other words, for example, Facebook should every month remind people with a clear message, not three pages of close print, about privacy settings and what a user can opt out of.

Speaking from a position of comparative ignorance, do the switch off advertising controls mean that the harvesting of data is also switched off? To use Deputy Ryan's point, does it mean that one's service provider can accumulate and store data about one without using it for advertising purpose but for other purposes? I suppose there is very little the commission here can do to stop GCHQ looking at material going through fibres crossing the United Kingdom, or can it do something?