Op 7 september 2025 meldde de Ierse Data Protection Commission (DPC) het volgende:

The Data Protection Commission (DPC) welcomes today’s announcement by Government of the appointment of Ms. Niamh Sweeney as Commissioner for Data Protection. Ms. Sweeney’s appointment completes the DPC’s three-person Commission. Commissioners Des Hogan and Dale Sunderland, along with all colleagues at the DPC, look forward to welcoming Ms. Sweeney and to working with her as the DPC continues to uphold the EU’s fundamental right to data protection.

Who cares, boring, zal de meestgevoelde reactie zijn na lezing van bovenstaande aankondiging, maar dan kan je de plank weleens mis slaan. Want enig speurwerk leverde de volgende informatie op.

RTE heeft wat meer informatie:

Ms Sweeney has worked across technology, public service and media.

Most recently, she was a director with a global strategic advisory firm having previously held senior roles at a number of technology companies including WhatsApp, Facebook and Stripe.

Een waakhond met wortels bij Meta… Dat is een ‘interessante’ combinatie…

Euractiv had dit te melden:

While the regulator operated for many years with just a single commissioner, in September 2023 it began recruitment for two more. Sweeney’s arrival completes the trio of commissioners now heading the watchdog – after Des Hogan and Dale Sunderland were appointed in February 2024, replacing the previous (sole) commissioner, Helen Dixon.

Dixon faced a barrage of criticism over the DPC’s approach to enforcing the GDPR on big tech. And while Hogan and Sunderland vowed to take a tougher stance when they were first appointed, many still doubt the watchdog’s willingness to follow through.

En mijn favoriete outlet, noyb, zegt over deze benoeming het volgende:

The DPC is the EU lead privacy regulator for most US Big Tech (such as Google, Microsoft or Meta) and was already notoriously pro-business. Prior to being entrusted with the responsibility of regulating US Big Tech, Sweeney spent more than 6 years at Meta. For 3.5 of those years, she was head of public policy at Facebook, Ireland, before becoming director of public policy for Europe at WhatsApp. With this appointment, the Irish government does not even pretend to care about enforcing EU law anymore.

US Big Tech now officially policing itself. Now, Ireland has officially announced that it is handing over one of the Commissioner positions at the DPC to a US Big Tech lobbyist that defended Meta in a time where it was involved in the “Cambridge Analytica” scandal and during proceedings that led to a € 390 million fine over not collecting consent from users or a € 1.2 billion fine over illegally transferring personal data to the US, where such data is used by the US secret services. These cases are right now on appeal between the DPC and Meta – where Mrs Sweeney will now switch from defending Meta to managing the regulator that pursues these cases.

In het licht van de recente knieval van Mario Draghi voor de Big Tech lobby / MAGA is deze benoeming verontrustend te noemen. Maar het kan nu niet langer als een verrassing komen als de GDPR/AVG langzaam maar zeker in een papieren tijger transformeert. Oersaai? Niets is minder waar…