Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 3 December 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment

Data Collection by Digital Assistants: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Ryan Meade:

I would go back to what I said at the start about the Google Account site which is where we give users control of all those details. All the activity that the Deputy considers may have been logged against his account will be displayed there and he can control not only what activity is captured but how it is used. He can opt out of any number of settings within that. We have tried to bring that into one place so it does not matter whether he changes devices. If he gets a new device but using the same Google account, his settings will carry over and he can continue to look at them there.

We also have the privacy and security checkup again which gives people an opportunity every so often to go in and review their settings. We are trying to make that situation easier for users so that if they do feel that they are not 100% sure about what they have opted in to there is one place they can go where they can see and control all of this.