Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak to this important Bill. As the Minister mentioned, the purpose of the legislation is twofold: first, to give effect to the general data protection regulation, GDPR; and second, to transpose into Irish law the accompanying directive in respect of law enforcement governing the area of data protection. Like the Minister, I am conscious that the regulation itself comes into force on 25 May next. We will seek to facilitate the Government in respect of its commitment to try to get the legislation enacted by the end of May. However, I think we need to be aware that this vital legislation, which will affect the rights of citizens throughout this country, should not be rushed. It is important that we get it right, as opposed to simply enacting it as quickly as possible in order to get this done by the end of May.

Before looking at a number of specific provisions in the Bill, I will refer to the developments in data protection that have taken place in the past 30 years. Legislation dealing with data protection was first introduced in this country in 1988. I do not know if anybody present was in this Chamber back in 1988, but if he or she was when the data protection Bill of that year was being discussed, I doubt anyone could have envisaged the developments that would take place in data protection in the subsequent 30 years. We must recognise that the debate on this legislation takes place against the background of an extraordinary technological revolution that has taken place in the world in the past 20 years, in particular. I am talking about the development of the Internet and the establishment of data and large technology companies that have been able to develop enormous powers through the accumulation, collation and use of personal data for individuals. This is something we never envisaged prior to the creation of the Internet and the revolution that took place in data technology in the past 20 years.

It is important to note that there have been many beneficial developments as a result of the technological revolution. We have seen great developments in access to information and through this revolution people have been able to access information that they have never been able to access before. Accessing that information has become much more democratised since very many people can use the Internet and search engines. There have been benefits in providing people with the opportunity to become more aware of their culture and past; that is a great benefit generated by the technological revolution.

Another great development and benefit for society is in communication. Many years ago when people left Ireland, they did so with the certainty that they would probably never be able to communicate with the individuals they were leaving behind in any meaningful or regular way. That has now gone as a result of the excellent developments that have taken place in technological and Internet communications.

There have been very many benefits as a result of the technological revolution, but there have also been very many negative consequences. I will give a couple of examples. No society has been exposed to the prevalence of pornography more than this one. Young people have never previously grown up with the promotion of pornography being so general and broad on the Internet. It must necessarily have an impact on their sexual development and perception of sexuality in general. We do not yet know what the consequences will be, but it is something we must watch carefully. We need to assist young people who are being exposed to matters such as this that previous generations were never exposed to. Another very negative consequence of the technological revolution is its facilitation and enablement of child abuse on an international basis as never encountered before. A third negative consequence is what is generally referred to as "fake news", with false information being given out and accepted by individuals as being true.

The issue on which I want to concentrate in this contribution is the damage being done in another important area of public life by the technological revolution. I am talking about the damage done by it to individualism. This is not a political philosophy; it is more of a social outlook or personal philosophy. Individualism is generally about individual people being able to make decisions for themselves based on their own intellectual capacity and life experiences. There is great benefit in a society having widespread individualism. It encourages the exchange of ideas and asks people not to get involved in "groupthink" which can be prevalent in certain societies. It adds to the intellectual life of a nation, when individuals can think differently for themselves, and promotes an exchange of ideas. It enables individuals to be honest with themselves about the generation of personal views, as opposed to the formulation of views based on what others think. Unfortunately, I am sure many others and I believe the technological revolution that has taken place in the past 20 years and, in particular, the accumulation of data from individuals have damaged the principle and practice of individualism.

Part of the reason large technology companies have so much information on individuals is they naïvely give away much information on themselves. There is also a purpose behind large technology companies or corporate entities wanting to accumulate data for individuals. They do it because they want to categorise individuals into groups and commodify them. They want to make it easier to sell these groups to advertisers or people who believe such groups would be of interest to a particular market for a product they wish to sell. We must be very conscious of the fact that this process of accumulating data for individuals and commodifying them into groups is having a very damaging effect on individualism. It is something we need to recognise and discourage. We need to constantly tell young and old people that they should formulate their own views and opinions based on their own intellectual assessments, rather than being told to do it or being malleable or impressionable while following a crowd. Unfortunately, many people now make up their minds not only on political issues but sometimes even on personal choices based on how they see the group to which they have affiliated acting. That should not be the case. It was always the case in Ireland and around the world that people could have a variety of views, but, unfortunately, we are now seeing homogenous views among society's groups. This is being used in a political context and around the world people's political views are sometimes formed because they believe the group to which they see themselves aligned in a data process has been identified as voting for or against some topic. Individuals naïvely see themselves as being in favour of that topic. Throughout history people have been impressionable and malleable, but, unfortunately, the technological revolution that has taken place with data makes that malleability even more apparent. It is one of the major concerns I have about the entire practice of data accumulation and the commodification of data by individuals.

I am sorry. I did not realise I had gone on so long giving what was probably a boring lecture for everybody.

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