Former Meta lobbyist appointed DPC Commissioner, is big tech officially policing itself?

Niamh Sweeney, a former senior Meta lobbyist, is set to join the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) as a Commissioner in October. Should we be worried?

The Data Protection Commission (DPC), Ireland’s data protection authority, announced Sweeney's appointment in a public press release, saying it is looking forward to welcoming and working with her.

People change careers all the time, but this one appears to be biased. At least, that’s what noyb claims.

“With this appointment, the Irish government does not even pretend to care about enforcing EU law anymore,” the Austrian privacy advocacy group states.

The DPC is Europe’s lead privacy regulator because most American tech companies have their headquarters in Dublin. Ever since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect, the DPC has been accused of being pro-big tech.

While the Irish privacy regulator has issued over €3.26 billion in fines, only €19.9 million, or 0.6% of them, have ever been collected, according to The Irish Times.

“This creates the impression of enforcement, but actually ensures that US big tech can operate in the European market without being bothered by strict EU digital laws,” noyb says.

According to the interest group, appointing Sweeney as Chair of the DPC, who spent more than six years lobbying for and defending Meta, including during the Cambridge Analytica scandal, feels like a slap in the face.

“We now literally have a US big tech lobbyist policing US big tech for Europe. For 20 years, Ireland did not actually enforce EU law, but at least it had enough shame to undermine enforcement secretly. We now witness a time where just pleasing US big tech behind the scenes is not enough anymore. The US demands that European countries publicly bow before US big tech,” noyb Chairman Max Schrems argues.

Meta is currently appealing two cases with the DPC: a €390 million fine for unlawfully collecting user data for years, and a €1.2 billion fine for how the company transferred personal data to the US. This means that Sweeney now must enforce the GDPR on her former employer, which could lead to bias and give the impression that big tech is playing by its own rules.

“For decades, the Irish government denied being too close to US big tech. With this appointment, all masks seem to be off. Ireland is officially kissing US big tech’s backside on the global stage. At least this brings some honesty to the situation we’ve witnessed over the last 15 years,” Schrems concludes.

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