Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It does, but it does not give where a person is at a particular time or where he or she might have been. As with a given name and address, it does not necessarily tell anything more than one’s IP address. It is no different from having knowledge of a person’s name. In the case that brought a lot of this about, it was the location data that made the significant difference.

We should note that the courts themselves have ruled that general data do not really impede on somebody’s privacy because the information is voluntarily given in many instances. It is not information that gives away anything about a particular person; it is simply information about him or her. The regulations may allow for a shorter period, of 12 months, or longer; however, considering that the period is half of what would be allowed for the Schedule 2 data and that the courts themselves do not seem to have an issue with putting this type of timeframe in place, this is really why we are putting the measure in place. Again, I stress that even this in itself is less than what we currently have and is more of a safeguard than what we currently have. We are really just trying to respond to the overall ruling and ensure we are fully compliant. I appreciate that there have been several rulings in recent years but it is a question of the most recent one. It is on the basis that we do not expect the Supreme Court to change anything that we are now implementing this measure.