Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am conscious the Commissioner, Ms Vestager, is with us, because Danes normally celebrate midsummer this evening. I thank her for giving us her time. I want to talk about the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act because they are, as Deputy Munster just said, related to legislation we are considering here. I will specifically talk about some of the issues we need to address domestically and at European level.

My first question is about online advertising targeting children. Does Ms Vestager believe there should be a Europe-wide ban on such advertising? Second, does she believe there should be a ban on surveillance-based advertising? My third question is about algorithmic decision-making. Algorithms can do lots of wonderful things, but if we do not guard against algorithmic bias, it will create many problems. We are looking to develop a number of codes here, but is it an approach that should be adopted at European level?

My final question comes down to the issue of European values and the importance of data. Does Ms Vestager view the right to data privacy as a European value? I speak in the context of China, which is increasingly using data for surveillance purposes, and the challenges we know of in the US around security and commercial purposes. How should Europe approach this? One must be conscious of the Schrems decisions and the implication of that in Ireland.