Big tech wants the ICO on EU data protection board in Brexit fallout The advertising lobby and tech megacorps including Facebook and Twitter are pushing for the UK's data protection watchdog to have full voting rights on a new, powerful European board after Brexit. At the moment, European Union data protection agencies, along with the European Data Protection Supervisor and the European …
I can only imagine that they hope that the ICO will be HMG's poodle when it comes to voting on the "adequacy" of the "oversight" of the universal surveillance. In turn that would enable them to keep the Privacy Figleaf in place because if it's allowed for the UK it has to be allowed for the US.
Easy, it's cheaper to "influence" one regulator than twenty seven. The standard approach of US companies to EU data protection is not to respect it, but to try and weaken it. This appears to suggest they made some progress towards that in the UK, and now don't want to see that effort wasted.
Yes, I'm a cynic. Why?
Could it have anything to do with the fact there is only one direct cable from Ireland to Europe?
https://www.ifc-1.com/
At least from what I can see, please correct if you know otherwise. The rest hit the UK, that's got to be an issue if all your data is going through the UK. IFC-1 is not even in service yet.
I expect direct data connections between Ireland and the continent that bypass the UK will become a big growth market post-Brexit. Just like there was suddenly a pressing need to create a connection between Brazil and Europe (without going via the US) after the Snowden revelations.
There is already a well developed plan for the Celtic Interconnector, a power connector between Ireland and the continent that bypasses the UK. https://subseaworldnews.com/2017/06/28/eu-funding-provided-for-celtic-interconnector/ The plan includes fibre-optics for data.
Well it's not going to happen. Thanks to DD's outburst on Sunday, the EU have hardened their language. The UK will not be a member and will not have observer status on any EU body or agency.
And to think that I once thought he was one of the small amount of decent politicians.
@Dan 55
Same here. Several years back I sat in on one of the early privacy meetings which was chaired by DD, and came away with the impression that he was a fair-minded privacy advocate. But, of course he was in opposition at the time and has more recently turned out to hold pretty much the opposite views. Come to think of it, that is nearly identical to our beloved PM and her stated views on Brexit before the Referendum and her actions and speeches afterwards.
Is it fair to call them duplicitous? Yes, very much so.
It's going to take a while for the dust to settle but I'm pretty sure that for the EU 27 to agree to last Friday's fudge will mean making it a binding agreement in which case EU rules will continue to apply unless another agreement can be drawn up and the ECJ gets to decide. The UK will continue to pay and follow the rules but no longer gets a say in them. Because Ireland.
Davis and May can brief all they like about not having caved in but the agreement is actually pretty clear in this respect.
Of course, they could go nuclear and give Ulster to Eire in order be able to control the border and let the EU sort out the little sectarian problems.
Well, they'd have fun explaining that one to the DUP, which has the ability to collapse May's self inflicted minority government at a whim.
The Tories are, quite amusingly, snookered by Northern Ireland. They have to somehow come up with a solution that involves preserving the absolute status quo.
The problem DD has is that he says one thing in Brussels and the something else at home to please then brexiteers. But I agree with him on one point, he is not too smart and this double speak will not be acceptable in Brussels although they understand the British domestic problem in moving from fantasyland towards reality.
How could Britain have voting rights on rules it can choose not to apply, if not legally bound to do so? I understand Facebook & C. believe it could be easier to bribe UK in such a situation, but it's exactly the reason why EU should repeal any attempts in that direction.
If I was EU, I would ask for voting rights in the Facebook board...
From the articles defining the Board....
The European Data Protection Board (the ‘Board’) is hereby established as a body of the Union and shall have legal personality.The Board shall be represented by its Chair.
The Board shall be composed of the head of one supervisory authority of each Member State and of the European Data Protection Supervisor, or their respective representatives.
This is going to be no different to Euratom, Europol etc
If you're not in the EU, you're automatically not in the agencies whose membership is drawn form EU states.
First rule of Fight Club, innit.
Apart from the fact that it was a fucking stupid idea™ in the first place to want to leave the largest free trade area to which the country belongs, it was also obvious that the country has a team of negotiators about as good as Uganda's navy*.
* Apologies to John Bird.
Apart from the fact that it was a fucking stupid idea™ in the first place to want to leave the largest free trade area to which the country belongs and secondly was instrumental in its establishment and evolution into its current relatively open state.
FTFY
Re: Ugandan Navy - friends, who have been back, tell me the buses are now both more reliable and more regular... :)
In a letter sent by Brexit secretary David Davis, he said that although Brexit means Brexit, and the UK will not abide by EU rules afterwards because Parliamenmtary Sovereignty and Taking Back Control, sucking up to Facebook and Google means that OK we'd like to join with other European countries in some organisation setting common standards and rules.
Just you wait.
"Some organisation" but definitely not one that is answerable to the ECJ, Oh no, we couldn't have that at all. We must retain our sovereignty.
What happens if this "standards organisation" sets a standard that the UK doesn't like? Will we have a veto? I am sure the other EU members of said organisation are going to accept that!
This is a pipe dream.
The gift that keeps on giving to Facebook / Google et al:
https://qz.com/162791/how-a-bureaucrat-in-a-struggling-country-at-the-edge-of-europe-found-himself-safeguarding-the-worlds-data/
https://qz.com/993995/how-facebooks-fb-sheryl-sandberg-personally-lobbied-irish-prime-minister-enda-kenny-as-shown-by-2014-emails-published-in-the-irish-independent/
This is about as likely to happen as flying pigs, particularly after the whole CA issue being UK based, but also due to UK tendencies towards extreme data retention, snoopers charter etc etc etc
Not a hope in hell of this happening. It's politically toxic across Europe and if anything data protection is something that's one of the core policies of the EU and something that's more likely to end up as a quasi federal central agency eventually, largely due to small states like Ireland not having the resources to police mega corps like Facebook.
>"Striking such a deal would be a huge gain for the entire UK economy but in particular for our world-beating marketing and advertising sector, which relies on being able to exchange personal data freely across EU borders," they wrote.<
Boasting about one's world-beating marketing and advertising skillz is like boasting about one's world-beating open-air poetry recital and sandwich cellophane wrapping skillz.
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