A loophole that led to a political data firm using unauthorised information collected from Facebook users in Donald Trump’s campaign was raised with an Irish regulator in 2011 but not closed for three years. Instead of closing the loophole, Mr Schrems said the Irish commissioner ordered only cosmetic changes from Facebook. A spokeswoman for Facebook Ireland was unable to say if the data of any Irish users was affected. Political opinionsSection 43 of the Data Protection Bill 2018, which aims to give effect to the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation, creates an exemption from a prohibition on processing data relating to political opinions. This would not be limited to Irish elections, candidates or political parties, he said.

Source: The Irish Times March 19, 2018 00:56 UTC