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Author Archives: Edward McGarr

Ireland’s role in Myanmar atrocities

The Government and military forces of Myanmar are the central focus of the UN Human Rights Council mission report on the plight of the Rohingya people of Myanmar. However, the report cites Facebook’s involvement and states:“The extent to which Facebook posts and messages have led to real-world discrimination and violence must be independently and thoroughly examined.” Ostensibly, it falls to Ireland to initiate an examination as suggested by the Human Rights Council mission because the Facebook accounts established for the […]

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The UN Human Rights Council

Urgent questions for the Data Protection Commission. A) Do you know that the United Nations Human Rights Council has deplored the failures of “Facebook” in connection with the facilitation of genocide by the Myanmar military in Rakhine district in Myanmar? B) Do you not know that, under international criminal law, the commander of a military force is, in principal, responsible for the crimes of his forces? C) Do you know that General Min Aung Hlaing, the commander of the Myanmar […]

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Google’s policeman

It is very nice to have a good infographic. See this infographic to understand (some of) the GDPR. It is worth examining the infographic and contrasting it with Google’s latest boo-boo. Sorry, that boo-boo is not recent; its old news. See it HERE and HERE. Significantly, that too, a belated recognition that the horse has bolted, was a feature of the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal. Every detail of that embroglio was long in the public domain before it was seen as […]

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The GDPR is not US Confederate money

Senator Mark Warner is the Democrat Vice Chairman of the US Senate Intelligence Committee. He issued a policy paper, in some fashion, in July 2018. It includes the redundant idea that the US should have a law “mimicking” the GDPR (or a watered down version of it). This suggestion was directed to the idea that internet users should be entitled to give or withhold their consent to the use of or access to their personal data. What the Senator seems […]

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Facebook’s Foundations

Here is a report from the New York Times dated 3rd June 2018. It reports that Facebook has current deals with many “devicemanufacturers” and that under the deals the manufacturers were given access to the personal data of Facebook users. The important elements of that story are as follows: 1. The report is of current events, i.e., events after the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) came into force on 25th May 2018. 2. The Facebook users (like the New […]

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Sir Cliff Richard

There are two matters (at least) worth noting in Sir Cliff Richard’s deserved win in the English High court. Firstly, it is heartening that a group of ordinary [women] citizens were sufficiently integrated as persons that they were immune to the effects of the smear attaching to Sir Cliff as a result of the disgraceful lynching of him by the BBC. Those citizens supported Sir Cliff by cheering for him outside the court on the delivery of the judgment. Secondly, […]

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Painful Pincers at the Border

Photo by: Magnus Norden

The UK government has issued the outlines of a new Data Protection Bill. It will be a substantial piece of work because it will replicate the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR is EU law and is directly effective in all Member States including the UK, on 25th May 2018. The UK Brexit plan requires “replication” rather than “supplementation” because the UK has no intention of cutting itself free of EU “red tape”, if it is in the form […]

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Medical Negligence*- Case Report on hospital liability

Court: UK Court of Appeal March 2017 Facts: The Plaintiff suffered a head injury from an assault. He attended at the Defendant’s hospital – the A & E dept., with a friend. The receptionist took his details and told him he would have to wait and it would be up to five hours before he was seen. In fact the hospital operated a system of having such patients seen within thirty minutes by a triage nurse. The receptionist did not […]

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The IBM Complex

Photo by: Magnus Norden

Reputedly, corporate America values conformity, hence the maxim – “Nobody ever got fired for hiring IBM” – applied to the purchase of materials or services. This approach fails to understand the drawbacks of conformity and the failure to understand both IBM and the real world. In Sweden the Transport Agency hired IBM to manage its vehicle registration and drivers’ licence database. The price, not relevant here, was €100 million. In the events that have happened, IBM did not understand that […]

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Digital Rights Ireland: Application for a Trial of Preliminary Issue

In January 2012, in the case of Digital Rights Ireland Ltd. v The Minister for Communications & Ors., the High court referred certain questions to the CJEU (ECJ) under Article 267 TEU. In the events that happened the ECJ struck down or found invalid Directive 2006/24/EC in the course of the hearing of the referred questions. The High court is now hearing the parties (Digital Rights Ireland Ltd. and the Minister for Communications & Ors.) in the resumed proceedings, interrupted […]

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