We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
EFFECTIVE TODAY, THE private data of roughly 240 million active Twitter users has become an Irish problem.
The social networking giant has revealed in a blogpost that The Office of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) has officially taken on its privacy-care duties.
“If you live outside the United States, our services are now provided to you by Twitter International Company, our company based in Dublin, Ireland,” reads the post.
Twitter International Company will be responsible for handling your account information under Irish privacy and data protection law.
This means, that while Twitter users’ (outside the US) privacy will henceforth be handled by Twitter International Company, based in Dublin, the standards and laws by which Twitter will be held accountable are Irish.
Or, to put it another way, if Twitter users anywhere in the world outside America have an issue with how the social network is handling their personal data, their first port of call will be with the ODPC.
Ireland’s current commissioner is Helen Dixon who took over the role in September 2014.
Roughly 77% of Twitter’s 302 million active users are based outside America.
Privacy and Twitter is a thorny subject, one which for the most part remains very much a grey area legally.
But with prosecutions for online bullying and hate speech gradually on the increase, it’s an area that is going to become more and more heavily scrutinised globally.
So, no pressure then.
The increasingly important role of Ireland’s Commissioner was acknowledged by the government in last October’s budget, with funding for the ODPC almost doubled to €3.7 million.
Last month, Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems told his court action against Facebook in Vienna that he abandoned his privacy suit in Ireland in order to avoid “the madness of the Irish courts”.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Shane on every Irish MEP who voted down these amendments, I’d wager all of their salaries none of them can adequately explain what they were voting on, the possible consequences of the vote or even why they voted how they did
*Shame
I doubt half of them even read the whole bill.
How can we find out who voted and what way they voted?
…they didn’t read it cos Fidelma forgot the Whiffy code. again….
After she was R/Fraped on Facebook
As long as I can still see the sexy ladies tis grand!!
Laying the groundwork for TTIP…
You certainly hit the nail on the head with that one.
The US just signed the Cisa Cybersecurity bill yesterday …27 October
Cisa would “allow ‘voluntary’ sharing of heretofore private information with the government, allowing secret and ad hoc privacy intrusions in place of meaningful consideration of the privacy concerns of all Americans,” the professors wrote.
The data in question would come from private industry, which mines everything from credit card statements to prescription drug purchase records to target advertising and tweak product lines. Indeed, much of it is detailed financial and health information the government has never had access to in any form. The bill’s proponents said the data would be “anonymized”.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/27/cisa-cybersecurity-bill-senate-vote
I think we’ll all end up partying like it’s 1984 sooner than anyone could imagine.
Sounds like the Eurocrats really thought this one through….not
The internet was bad enough with a small number of companies buying up everything in site but its rightly f##cked now. This only favours big business. Just a few fig leaves thrown in to make it seem reasonable.
Amazing the admission from MEPs that they voted for full package as they were so keen to get the, voter popular, roaming free charges in place. Incredibly short sighted, as for the comment from KevJ that it would be amazing if “half of them read the bill” – not a hope in hell. From experience the number of those MEP who read the bill would be somewhere in the region of a dozen or so.
Most of the MEPs would have been handed a sheet from their EP political groups. On the sheet is the title of the legislation being voted on then a series of numbers (indicating the amendment) and ‘guidance’ from the parties on whether to Yes, No or Abstain.
have your say