Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan has recommended that mobile phone users turn off any location apps to ensure that their data cannot be collected and then sold-on by criminal brokers.
He was commenting on a recent RTÉ Prime Time investigation that identified that data showing the specific movement of tens of thousands of smartphones in Ireland is available to purchase from companies working in the digital marketing and advertising industries.
Speaking in the Dáil, Minister O'Callaghan said the office of the Data Protection Commissioner had visited the Irish office of one of the two brokers featured in the programme and has contacted its equivalent office in another unidentified EU member state.
He said brokers selling such private data is an "extremely serious matter" and he is "extremely concerned" by what had been identified by Prime Time.
The issue was raised by Labour leader Ivana Bacik who expressed concern that the DPC was not using its statutory powers to deal with such brokers while the Government was adopting a "hands-off approach."
She said GDPR rules contained safeguards against the "brazen use of data", but Tánaiste Simon Harris had only given what she described as a "watery response" to the programme's revelations with a promise of "vague new laws."
Deputy Bacik said the sale of data, which included politicians addresses, was "particularly chilling" given recent online abuse directed at the Tánaiste and his family.
She said the data sales was emblematic of a wider problem - that Ireland lacks an overarching strategy to deal with cyber attacks, like the one directed against the Health Service Executive.
The minister said the DPC is fully independent but his officials do engage with the office and he was "satisfied" that they would "get to the bottom" of who these data brokers are.
