Deirdre Clune (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I am concerned over the personal data from individuals, who are using leaky smartphone apps, which can be gathered and used for surveillance or sold on for commercial reasons. It is becoming quite serious. I believe there has to be surveillance of some sort from a security point of view in the fight against terrorism. However, do we need to go as far as apps such as Angry Birds requesting the user's location and unique device code? This app has been downloaded more than 1 billion times. Candy Crush Saga, which is the most popular game on Facebook, Google Plus and Google Maps all ask for locations and individuals' private information which has nothing to do with the mobile phone app.

This came to light recently through documents acquired by Edward Snowden, who has hit the headlines in the past 12 months. It suggests that information from these apps is being gathered. The US Government targeting of leaky apps was disclosed in documents published by The New York Times, The Guardian and ProPublica. There have been discussions at EU level and I have raised the issue previously. It is important that people should be aware of the potential risk from using these apps. I agree that individuals must put the correct structures in place to prevent their personal information from getting into the public domain.

There is a data protection issue if information is being leaked and sold on for commercial gain. Some 25% of social networking apps request an e-mail address, 92% ask for the user's address book and 84% inquire about physical locations. The Minister for Justice and Equality has responded to me in the past 12 months on the issue and it is a matter that needs to be kept to the fore. I know the European Parliament is expected to adopt proposals in April. However, I wish to hear the Government's approach to this and how we are moving to protect personal data.