Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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435. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the total number of complaints made to the Data Protection Commission in each year from 2016 to date that related to the right to be forgotten under Article 17 of the GDPR; the number of such cases in each year in which the DPC ruled in favour of the data subject; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21203/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Government is very conscious of the commitment to deliver effective data protection regulation and protection of the data privacy rights of EU citizens, which is critical to the development and growth of our digital economy. My Department’s role is to ensure that the Data Protection Commission, which is independent in its functions, continues to have the resources required to fulfil its important, statutory obligations.

While the Data Protection Commission is completely independent in the performance of its tasks and the exercise of its powers, I have made enquiries and the table below outlines the total number of complaints, and outcomes, made to the Data Protection Commission from 2016 to date which related to the right to be forgotten under Article 17 of the GDPR.

These figures relate to Right to be Forgotten or Erasure requests to the large search providers Google LLC, Microsoft (Bing), and Yahoo EMEA. The figures for “amicably resolved” and “complaint concluded via outcome” which total 121 cases represent an outcome issued or a complaint which concluded via the amicable resolution process. It is not possible to differentiate for cases “in favour of the data subject” as the DPC does not record case outcomes in this manner.