Taoiseach says legislative changes needed for phone data location tracking

Olivia Kelleher

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that the Government and the Data Protection Commissioner will examine whether legislative changes might be required after an RTÉ Prime Time Investigates programme highlighted the sale of Irish mobile phone location data.

The programme, which aired last night, found that smartphone movement data is available to purchase from brokers in the digital advertising industry.

The team at Primetime Investigates went undercover, posing as a new data analyst is firm and obtained a sample of data from a supplier. It was said to contain the exact movements of 64,000 Irish smartphones during a period of a fortnight earlier this year.

The data could be traced back to home addresses and to the likes of military bases, prisons, and even Government offices.

Speaking at Blackwater Community School in Lismore, Co Waterford, the Taoiseach said that people should not sharing their location data

"I think one of the issues is when people are downloading apps or they are in a hurry, they do not read all the terms and conditions."

They tend to bypass those, and they just want to get access to things.”

He said that, give the potential security implications the matter was going to be thoroughly looked at with all options on the table.

“Basically, we do need to examine it because there are security implications...the tracking of movement, particularly people who may be vulnerable and exposed on security grounds."

"Again, GDPR relates to - there could be an issue there legally in terms of the dividing line and the demarcation line in terms of GDPR and anonymous location identification."

"The Data Protection Commissioner is looking at this, but the Government will also examine this, discuss thi,s and engage with the Commission and the industry, particularly in terms of the security dimension of this development."

"We are going to examine it, and obviously, we will look at all options in that regard."

Mr Martin stated that the harnessing of data represents one of the key economic drivers of the modern era.

“People, when they are browsing or going through a newspaper article, they invariably are asked if they accept this...invariably they are anxious to read the article, so you press whatever."

"This is no surprise that data has been one of the dominant drivers of economic activity in the technology world for quite a long time."

He added that governments generally have to always take a “vigilant approach” to protecting citizen.

“Having a level playing field, a fair playing field, to protect the people.

"That will always be our consideration, and that applies to content as well as to creating space for proper debate and discussion in society as well."

Meanwhile, Labour Leader Ivana Bacik has called on the Government to establish when the Data Protection Commission (DPC) became aware of issues raised in the RTÉ programme.

“Unfortunately, few will be surprised by the fact that tech companies are engaging in this practice. However, many will be rightly outraged that the Data Protection Commissioner appears to have been aware of this illegal behaviour for some years, but it appears to have done nothing about it.

“In response to me in the Dáil, the Tánaiste stated his understanding that the DPC had become became aware of this practice when contacted by Prime Time. But this account does not tally with what the whistleblower and indeed the ICCL have said.

“The ICCL has sought responses on this for years, but none have been forthcoming. There is now a concern as to who in the DPC knew about this, when, and why no actions were taken. Moreover, there are important questions to be answered about what the Government have been told.”

Ms Bacik described as “absolutely shocking” the fact that the sale of data about the movements of specific, identifiable people around Ireland is now taking place.

“Included in the data set are chilling examples of data showing the movements of individuals to and from military bases, the Dáil, and other specific locations; it even shows the movement of family members of prominent individuals, including to and from their homes. This appears to constitute a serious national security threat, and the DPC has questions to answer about how it proposes to act on this. Recent news of threats being made to the safety of the Tánaiste – and his family – and others highlight just how serious this is.”