Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On amendments Nos. 11 and 12, section 45 sets out the way in which the new exclusion register will work. Amendments Nos. 11 and 12 relate to improving data protection and upholding a person's right to privacy under this Bill. Amendment No.11 proposes to bestow a new power on the authority that would mean it would request gambling companies to delete the personal data of their customers that they have stored. It is important that when someone is on the exclusion register, any data stored by the companies the person wants to be excluded from would be deleted. We are aware that data is used by gambling companies to create profiles of their customers, former customers and future customers. If a person takes a step to self-exclude from a gambling company, we cannot allow for the gambling company to hold onto that person's data and try to figure out how to lure him or her back at the end of an exclusion period. Amendment No.11 would give effect to this.

Amendment No. 12 makes it the case that a company could not continue to collect, collate or process the personal data of a person while he or she is on the exclusion register. In a similar way to amendment No. 11, amendment No. 12 tries to make it the case that a gambling company could not continue to build up a data profile of a customer or former customer while he or she is on the exclusion register. This is in order that such people are not lured back into the gambling habits they have tried to leave behind for that period.