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Some EU data meetings ‘politicised’ – Dixon

The former head of the Data Protection Commission has said that meetings of EU data regulators sometimes became politicised, as issues linked to Ireland’s corporate-tax regime were brought up. 

Helen Dixon was speaking at a ‘Perspectives on Leadership’ event held by law firm Fieldfisher in Dublin (19 June). 

Asked about the DPC’s role within the wider EU system of data protection under the GDPR, Dixon said that engaging with other EU authorities was a daily part of her role, with many complaints often coming from individuals or organisations in other EU countries. 

She acknowledged that the European system of GDPR regulation was slow, but pointed out that it had emerged from a political and economic compromise. 

‘Extremely unpleasant’ meetings

The former commissioner described some of the meetings with other EU data authorities as “extremely unpleasant”, with some becoming politicised because of the wider issue of multi-nationals' location in Ireland. 

“Often, in the same breath, people would speak about the tax regime and the data-protection regime,” she stated. 

Dixon defended the DPC’s record against claims that Ireland was not capable of acting as lead regulator to the major tech companies because of their importance to the Irish economy, telling the event that recent academic research “contradicts the narrative” that Ireland was “soft” and other regulators were tougher. 

Under-investment 

She told the event that she was surprised by the scale of under-investment in the data-protection regime in Ireland when she took up the role in 2014. 

When Dixon began, the office had 27 staff and was based in Portarlington. 

She told the event that, while it didn’t matter where the job was done, “perception became reality”, and the Portarlington location became the “butt of international jokes” and a representation of the under-investment in data protection in Ireland. 

Dixon said that a move to Dublin, however, was appropriate in practical terms. 

“Ireland is a very centralised country, and to row against that in terms of its data-protection regime is difficult,” she stated. 

Pressure 

Asked about the challenges of dealing with large, multi-national companies, Dixon said that there was a huge amount of procedural work involved in investigations, particularly in GDPR cases. 

She added that the platforms had their own, bespoke organisational structures, and data-protection and legal teams based in Dublin sometimes did not know their product manager in the US. 

On the importance of such companies to the Irish economy, the former commissioner said that she never encountered any pressure from Government or any other public body about how her office conducted its investigations. 

“The only pressure would have been to communicate and engage with companies who wanted to understand what the regime was in Ireland,” she said. 

Dixon told the audience that the pressure was often bigger for matters involving the investigation of Government actions. 

On the DPC’s investigation into the use of the Public Services Card, she said that Government, unlike tech platforms, had a monopoly in data processing, so it was particularly important that it maintained the standards set by the GDPR. 

Political role

Asked about the potential inclusion of data regulation in trade talks, Dixon pointed out that it was useful in some ways. 

Some things, she told the event, had to be decided politically, citing systemic issues of data transfers between the EU and US.

The former regulator said that fines were an important part of the regulatory mix, although orders for compliance made by regulators were at least as important. 

“It does pinch; it does hurt,” she said, adding that financial penalties also drew public attention to important data-privacy issues. 

Dixon, who was the sole commissioner at the DPC, described the current three-commissioner system as “a strange model”. 

“It's extremely difficult to manage an organisation – to lead an organisation – when you're attached to two other people that have the same role,” she stated.