Privacy International have published their latest study reviewing privacy and human rights in Europe.

I contributed to the Irish chapter of the report, along with TJ McIntyre and Colin Irwin. It gives a good overview of current Irish law on privacy and data protection.

The report concludes that, while Europe is the world leader in privacy rights, there remains much work to be done in the field.

The Directive on Data Protection has been implemented across EU member states and beyond, but inconsistencies remain. Surveillance harmonisation that was once threatened is now in disarray. Yet there are so many loopholes and exemptions that it is increasingly challenging to get a full understanding of the privacy situations in European countries. The cloak of ‘national security’ enshrouds many practices, minimises authorisation safeguards and prevents oversight.

The report includes a report card in its key findings, the highlights of which for Ireland include criticisms that Ministerial warrants can override privacy law protections and that powers allowing for interception of VoIP calls are ambiguous.

For more on international privacy law, Morrison Foerster have a very useful library which acts as an online sourcebook.

• Data Protection