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Shaun O'Shea, head of Beauchamps Solicitors IT and e-commerce unit, told ElectricNews.Net that companies and institutions that retain personal information about customers, potential customers, clients or employees will face a new layer of bureaucracy to their business when the directive is implemented.
The EU Council Directive 95/46/EC, which relates to data protection, was passed by the EU in 1998. Ireland, along with France and Luxembourg, failed to implement the directive and subsequently faced a lawsuit from the EU, which is ongoing. "I have no doubt that Ireland will be forced to comply with this directive," O'Shea said. "It's only a matter of time."
Currently Ireland's data protection laws are governed by a 1988 law, which O'Shea described as "very forward looking." He said that because the 13-year-old legislation was actually quite progressive, Irish business will only face minimal changes when and if the EU directive is implemented here.
Nevertheless O'Shea warned that the directive, which some might consider anti-business, will force Irish firms to comply with some new regulations which mostly deal with how users consent to the storage of personal data as well as the use of stored data in non-EU countries.
The directive establishes a "clear and stable" regulatory framework to ensure both a high level of protection for the privacy of individuals in all member states and the free movement of personal data within the European Union.
Essentially the directive was designed to minimise differences between member states' data protection rules, and to facilitate the development of e-commerce.
The ordinance also sought to establish rules to ensure that personal data is only transferred to countries outside the EU when its continued protection is guaranteed.
All of these issues come in the wake of the debate between the European Council of Ministers and the European Parliament over another proposed data protection law. Advisers for the Council of Ministers agreed a new draft of the law last week. This version of the law contains measures that would make it easier for police to obtain data regarding the actions of individuals while on-line. The move toward granting the authorities greater access to personal data is currently being resisted by the European Parliament.
In a symposium held in Dublin on Monday Beauchamps gathered a number of IT lawyers from the UK, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Finland, Portugal and Spain to discuss some of the issues that current and new data protection laws will cover.
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