Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I thank the Acting Chairman. I thank Mr. Kaplan and Ms Sweeney. Mr. Kaplan is very welcome to Europe. This democratic republic is part of Europe. I was thinking about some of the names mentioned earlier. I am a former Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and I remember sitting on the EU Council with Viviane Reding for four years. She is a formidable and powerful woman. That power in Europe to set standards is very important and rightly in place. It has been one of the proud records of our Union. At Council meetings, there were only 27 people around the table but in private session some were saying they wanted Facebook shut down. That was never the Irish position. We are hugely supportive of companies like Facebook, not just because its large headquarters is based here, but also because we are a modern, forward-looking country which embraces the digital revolution, openness and democratic engagement. Shutting things down is sometimes too much on the attack side. We have always stood up for co-operation between US multinationals and Europe.

My experience in Europe has also involved working with the likes of Jan Philipp Albrecht, a Green colleague who was centrally involved in the European Parliament in the development of the GDPR. He is a brilliant parliamentarian. It was Parliament which drove standards in recent times, moreso than the Council or the Commission. There is real strength in that. It is a cross-party institution and it unites Europe left, right, green and liberal on the need for standards. Facebook is facing a Europe which is not divided on this issue but is rather united absolutely in the European Parliament. Having worked on these issues for ten or 15 years, I reflect also on the real strength in the likes of Digital Rights Ireland and Max Schrems who have done a real service to public policy by asking awkward questions and raising high standards. Some might see it as being difficult, but to my mind, they have done it out of a strong ideal about what the revolution could bring. They have done a real service and our party very much supports and recognises the work they have done in the courts and elsewhere.

Deputy Dooley quoted someone from Facebook earlier. I quote from the boss, as it were, Mr. Zuckerberg, and his address on 16 February 2017:

To our community,

On our journey to connect the world, we often discuss products we're building and updates on our business. Today I want to focus on the most important question of all: are we building the world we all want?

It is the right question. My first answer, however, is that I do not want to live in a world of surveillance. I do not want anyone to have surveillance or control over me, be it a state or private entity. That is what the issue of privacy and the need to protect data rights are about. This revolution is only at the beginning. We need it to evolve so that we embrace the Internet of things and do all the management required to protect our environment, improve our health service and obtain all of the other efficiencies we can gain from digital systems.

We cannot do that if we do not have trust and the fundamental building blocks needed around the use of our data. We cannot convince our people to share data if they think it is being used for exploitation, which is why this issue is important. This is important for every committee of the Houses, including the energy, health and education committees. If we do not get the building blocks and basic rules for data use right, we will not get all of the benefits from the digital revolution that is evolving. It is as significant as that. It is one of the most important public policy issues we face.

As I said to the Data Protection Commissioner earlier, I recognise that time is very short here. I wish we had the five hours Mr. Zuckerberg had before Congress and elsewhere. Recognising that, I will provide 20 questions in writing to which I request a written response. I will ask a couple of them now, however, reflecting on some of what we have heard. As time is tight, a "Yes" or "No" answer will be appropriate in some cases. These are some of the questions people in Europe are now asking about Facebook.

Facebook's opening presentation set out that the company engages with the Data Protection Commissioner on new products and how things are working. In that consultation, are there discussions around the new face recognition services which are about to be offered by Facebook in the EU? I understand the new policy is based on an opt-in to facial recognition to inform Facebook users that their faces have appeared in photos uploaded by other users. Does that mean Facebook will index all facial profiles on any photo uploaded, regardless of any consent by any person depicted? More specifically, will Facebook refrain from analysing any photograph uploaded by any user for biometric data on persons depicted in those photos until it has received an opt-in from every person depicted in those photos? I acknowledge that this is specific, but that is where we are at in terms of what we need to know.

Privacy International created a new Facebook profile recently to test default settings. By default, everyone can see one's friends list and look one up using the phone number one provides to Facebook. This is not what proactive privacy protections look like. How does this use by default work under article 25 of the GDPR, which is about to come into effect?