THE UNIVERSAL DEFENCE attempted by some defenders, that there will always be "a few bad apples" in law enforcement or the civil service, is as troubling as it sounds. The Irish Minister of Justice's gathering of personal phone records, browsing histories, and online activities will be compromised as surely as there are "a few bad apples in any barrel." This is an absolute fact--it is generally agreed that the vast preponderance of abuse by police is committed by perhaps five percent of officers. The long-running series of tribunals in Ireland documents that around 5% of all elected politicians are on the take.
What bugs me is that we're to accept this as a default. We are to accept the known potential for the abuse of our personal information in exchange for what? A better society? A safer country?
And what kind of data protection do we get? Is it a criminal offence to compromise the personal data of another? Not in Ireland.
There is no reason to assume the five percent of dodgy gardai is evenly distributed across the force. In fact, a garda under suspicion is more likely to be pulled off the street and put into an administrative role where he or she will have unfettered access to interesting data trawls to fill time. And all the while, the image of "a few bad apples" remains a plausible way of talking about data abuse. Irish society derserves better.
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