Data protection must keep pace with big data, justice minister says

Ireland has ambitions to be among the world’s best in the provision of services in data analytics, the minister for justice said at the opening of an international conference in Dublin.

Alan Shatter made his remarks on 9 April at the 2013 European Data Forum where the potential for jobs and growth from data analytics was discussed. Big data is a high growth area but one where data protection standards have to keep pace with emerging technologies, he said. Advancing the new EU Data Protection regulations and securing their agreement was a “priority” for the Irish Presidency of the EU, Shatter said.

The big data sector is growing by 40 per cent per annum, the director general of research funding body Science Foundation Ireland said at the meeting. The new national research centre for data analytics, Insight, was bringing together academics and industrial partners to pursue research in the area, he added.