Privacy Officers Network

23 - 24 March 2006

Dublin, Ireland

Overview

This Roundtable with Billy Hawkes, Ireland's new Data Protection Commissioner, covered issues including:

  • monitoring of individuals in the workplace;
  • any tensions with the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act over whistle blowing lines;
  • international transfers of personal data outside the European Economic Area, including the Commissioner’s attitude to Binding Corporate Rules, for example, in the context of outsourcing to call centres in India;
  • new sectoral codes of practice, guidelines on websites and marketing;
  • enforcement: the way the Commissioner handles investigations into complaints and the role of mediation; sectoral audits and prosecutions, where necessary; and
  • the future of registration following a consultation by the Department of Justice Equality and Law Reform; scope for exemptions.