Security News > 2020 > February > Irish Privacy Report Gives Glimpse Into GDPR Investigations

A newly released report offers a glimpse into how European Union authorities are applying the General Data Protection Regulation to some of the biggest U.S. technology firms, including social media giants Facebook and Twitter.

What makes Ireland a bellwether for GDPR is that many U.S. technology firms, including Apple, Facebook and Google, have designated Ireland as their "Main establishment" in the EU. Under GDPR, that enables them to qualify for a one-stop-shop mechanism, which ensures that the data protection authority in that country takes the lead on any EU privacy investigations.

Ireland's DPC. In its annual report, Ireland's Data Protection Commission reported that it had received 7,215 data privacy complaints in 2019, a 75 percent increase over the 4,113 received in 2018.

Since GDPR went into full effect in May 2018, EU data protection authorities have received more than 160,900 data breach reports, according to the law firm DLA Piper, which published new statistics in January.

Ireland's commissioner for data protection, says in the DPC report that the country has been taking a slower approach to imposing fines and penalties against some of these bigger technology firms because GDPR is a fairly new law and investigations take time and manpower.

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https://www.inforisktoday.com/irish-privacy-report-gives-glimpse-into-gdpr-investigations-a-13756