Irish DPC lobbied for Facebook-friendly GDPR

06/12/2021 | noyb

The second Advent Reading concerning the alleged unhealthy relationship between Ireland's Data Protection Commission and Facebook is delivered in the style of the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol. This week noyb publishes documents that reveal historical lobbying by the DPC to change the fundamental text of the GDPR so that social media companies like Facebook wouldn't need to get user consent to use their data for ads. In a statement, Max Schrems said, "The documents show a clear plan: First the Irish regulator agreed on a GDPR bypass with Facebook. Then it tries to squeeze this bypass into European guidelines. The DPC clearly does not act in the interest of data protection, but in the interest of US multinationals. Usually it is Facebook lobbyists that try to influence guidelines in the interest of their industry sector, here the regulator has turned into a lobbyist."

Read the first noyb Advent Reading.

UPDATE: 071221 - The Data Protection Commission has strongly denied claims made by noyb that it lobbied members of the European Data Protection Board to adopt Facebook-friendly guidelines or that it has acted in bad faith. Meanwhile, The Irish Times has published the opinion of the Norwegian DPA, which believes the DPC's draft decisions on Facebook will render EU data protection law pointless, ending the right to privacy. 

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