Ms Anna Morgan:

I thank Senator Byrne for his questions. He raised two issues in particular, namely, biometric authentication and the increasing roll-out of artificial intelligence by tech companies and tech platforms. Separately, he referred to algorithmic-based decision-making. Both are matters which, insofar as they concern general data, would fall within the scope of the GDPR and the general data protection regime.

On biometric authentication, the use of any biometric personal data would be captured by the rules around processing within the GDPR and the rules on processing for special category personal data. Equally, insofar as decision-making is concerned, as members of the committee will be aware, Article 22 of the GDPR expresses a prohibition on automated decision-making insofar as it may create legal or other similarly significant effects. That prohibition operates other than where there are a range of circumstances where the-----