back to article Ireland to block EU-Israel data hoover

Ireland is moving to block a planned agreement on data sharing due to be signed between Israel and the European Union. Ireland's minister of justice Dermott Ahern said he was profoundly concerned about the proposed data transfer. He said Israel needed to prove its data protection principles, especially in the light of the …

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  1. James 47
    FAIL

    Israel???

    Why the hell do they need EU data? I'm pretty sure it doesn't include Switzerland which is where any Israeli interests would really lie.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    may be an obvious question

    but why do we need to share any "data" with Israel?

    Given the recent history over passports etc this does seem a little odd.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    And how are "data protection assurances" going to help?

    Any "assurances" by Israel concerning data protection are, quite literally, not worth the paper they are written on. It's stupid to think otherwise.

  4. g e

    Away with ye!

    Says feck all for UK and France, doesn't it.

    Nice one, Ireland.

  5. JaitcH
    Alert

    Can ANYONE be Trusted with our personal data?

    Given the governmental abuse of data in many countries, within and without the EU, NO data should be permitted to cross any border without disclosure to and the specific permission of the data subject.

    Even within the UK we have idle trolls who access our data our prurient curiosity entrusted to the government and this data, as well health records, end up in the public domain.

    There is absolutely no need for all this data gathering in the first place and joining the databases together inly adds to the wrong doing.

    Canada, for one, has a government policy of segmenting data, so that authorised users can only access what is pertinent to their job requirements. Data is spread between the national and provincial governments increasing the protection against illegal viewing. Mind you this can reach extremes where services cannot be obtained without data from both levels of government.

    Clearly the U.S. government is the most prolific gatherer of mundane information with the UK not being a too distant second. I reside in an authoritarian country, complete with ID cards, bur individuals data is far less than that of other countries.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Try..

      using wireshark when you log on to your banks secure (https port 443) web server, some of them are sending stuff to other sites, why one wonders?

  6. PhilDin
    Go

    Crap!

    Dermot Ahern was on my sh!t list for introducing the blasphemy bill, this doesn't get him off the hook but I have to take my hat off to him.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Easier answer

    Just block Israel.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Does it really matter?

    We're almost certainly already giving the Yanks all this information, and they'll simply pass it on the Israelis if they ask for it. At least this way we might get something useful in return.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @AC re: does it really matter

      Spot on!

      Of course they'll then demand payment to integrate the data into their systems too.

    2. Barry Mahon
      Thumb Up

      Quite...

      The US does get the data, under the same system that Ahern is questioning, so, Israel will get it. This whole fiasco is a pretence that Israel doesn't have it, and a piece of pr fluff by Dermot, since ehis party is in the shit.

      BTW, anyone got a link to the Russian spy having an Irish passport thing??

      Bye, Barry

  9. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    @data protection

    To be fair they were protecting the passport data, they made backup copies of it.

    If Ireland had somehow lost the data for those passports Isreal could have sent them a copy.

  10. ~mico
    Black Helicopters

    I wonder...

    ...why most anti-israeli flame is produced by AC flamethrowers?

    Side note: it seems Irish passports are preferred by spies worldwide...

    Another side note: Are spies supposed to use their true credentials? That will probably defeat the purpose behind, hmm, spying...

    1. Frantisek Janak
      Thumb Up

      A title...and here are some numbers: 9349390978

      Another another side note:

      killing a top official of a terrorist org should amount to something and simply outweigh some bloody forgery, ffs

      Relativism? Yes, please, I am a postmodernist.

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge
      Big Brother

      Well-known fact

      Ireland is neutral so having an Irish passport helps a lot when visiting many Islamic countries.

      As for Israeli-bashing - what people really target is the Israeli government or state rather than the people. It is insane to align statehood with religion.

      Nice to see how data protection has come to mean "sharing it with as many as possible".

      As for posting anonymously it makes pretty much no difference for Mossad on this non-https, Google-infested site.

      1. Barry Mahon
        Thumb Down

        Irealnd is neutral??

        Maybe, on paper, we are in effect signed up to NATO/European common defence stuff, and US troops on the way to war stop over in Shannon.

        Yea, maybe having an Irish passport helps in getting in to Islamic countries, but not if you have an Israeli stamp in it....I had to carry two passports for years, no problem, the Dept of Foreign Affairs in Dublin were in full agreement. Handy too in apartheid SA days for getting in to other African countries.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Badgers

      Neutrality

      Probably because Ireland has a stance of international neutrality:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_neutrality

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Big Brother

      ...why most anti-israeli flame is produced by AC flamethrowers?

      It may have something to do with the way Israel kills anyone it wants to.

  11. Matt 21

    Why are we having anything to do with them?

    We should not have anything to do with a country with such an atrocious record on human rights and war crimes.

    I'm not saying that the surrounding countries are whiter than the driven, but two wrongs.........

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thank god for the Irish

    The British government should have kicked this idea back to Tel Aviv after the Israelis took to photocopying our passports en masse.

  13. Combat Wombat
    Badgers

    Oh goodie.

    So Israel can data mine the new data for more people to kill.

    I really do not want my travel data being hacked by a bunch of murderous religious fundamentalists.

    I don't care which god they follow, but the government of Israel have shown them selves to be no better than the South African government of old.

    It's apartheid, just in the middle east now.

  14. Graham Marsden
    Thumb Down

    So when are the Israelis...

    ... Going to pass all their data over to the EU?

    (I hope that it will include details of all their people's passports...!)

  15. John Savard

    Very Surprised

    In another article, I saw a reference to the European Court of Human Rights blocking the extradition of Abu Hamza to the U.S.. And now this. Given terrorist attacks both in London and in Spain, I am surprised that Europe is not taking terrorism every bit as seriously as the United States does.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge
      Terminator

      Scared

      Why do I get the feeling from your comment that by "taking terrorism seriously" you mean mass hysteria, dropping bombs on people and years of imprisonment without trial?

      Europe has its own fine traditions of terrorism: the IRA, ETA, RAF to name a few of the more prominent ones. But you're right, we don't take them seriously.

  16. h4rm0ny
    Pint

    Good for Ireland.

    First the Treaty of Lisbon, now this. If there is one country above all others that considers itself beyond consequence, it's Israel. Their government does what it likes and has no conscience.

    Beer for the Irish. God bless 'em.

  17. Parsifal
    WTF?

    One Way Share

    I rather suspect this will be a one way operation if it goes ahead, with the EU giving Israel all it wants (rather like shutting up a spoiled child) and nothing of use being given back.

    The Israeli government have a strong tendency to act like a schoolyard bully in the middle east, especially to the Palestinians and when they bite off more than they can chew, they guilt the west into helping them because of what happened in the 2nd world war (regardless of the fact the allies had no control over what the Germans were doing)

  18. Hetz Ben Hamo
    Stop

    Give me a break

    Mossad, MI6, CIA, and lots of other agencies creates those fake ID's for various purposes. Google it, see what ministers in Australia said, they basically on TV admitted it.

    If the incident that happend with Israel and the terrorist was happening with another country, not Israel, everyone would have been forgetting about it 24 hours, but since it's Israel, then ... you see the comments here..

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