“I.T. Law in Ireland.” Blog Review.

The blog I have chosen to review is called “I.T. Law in Ireland.”  The blog is composed by a lecturer of law in UCD and it mainly focuses on legal issues of privacy and freedom of expression with regards to the information technology age. Updates occur often and in general originate from a variety of different legal resources, e.g. case law, current news topics etc.

The main focus of the blog revolves around the impact of technology on the privacy rights of Irish citizens. The author has posted several entries regards the invasion of privacy. Examples include an entry involving a Dutch technology entrepreneur in Tipperary. It included details on the Revenue Commission’s recent activities in searching through online networking sites (Facebook, etc) when making tax audits. The author puts forward a convincing argument, based on personal opinion, on why this type content shouldn’t be used. He shows how much of this content can often be unreliable, and secondly, much of the information on these profiles could be used in discrimination against some of these people, e.g sexual orientation etc. The author puts forward his argument in simple language and refrains from using excessive legal jargon. This makes the blog much more beneficial for the readers as they can leave the blog with a better understanding of the law in this area. 

The author also draws from legal resources from different countries. There are several entries where he mentions cases from other jurisdictions and their impact there as well as the view from an Irish law perspective. On Feb 29^th an entry was posted regards the German Constitutional court and its decision which constitutes a new “basic right to the confidentiality and integrity of information-technological systems.” This entry although quite short and void of much personal input from the author, is quite informative and contains many links for further reading on the topic. The author also draws on UK law with regards to privacy in other entries from the blog. However in some of these entries the author appears to portray some anti-government bias. On Jan 30^th an entry details methods considered by the UK government in order to “coerce take up of voluntary ID cards.” Although the UK’s stance on ID cards is highly controversial the author fails to address any of the benefits of these cards in this or any previous blogs. Such benefits may include an effective method for the protection of identity fraud. As a result the blog, and this entry in particular, has attracted comments from extremists on one side of the argument who in one post refer to the UK as an “almost fascist society”. However to be fair the aim of the blog revolves around the protection of privacy in the I.T. age and ridiculous comments are generally kept to a minimum. With regards to comments, on many entries there are very few, if any, but on some entries readers often provide insightful opinions and extra information that compliments the authors blog entry. 

Although blog entries are generally restricted to law there are some occasions of entries unrelated to that of the blog’s subject area.  Examples include an excellent Youtube video found by the author which gives an amusing opinion of web 2.0. Although totally unrelated to the law it does provide a refreshing break from the extensive, albeit interesting, legal information.

With regards to the appearance of the blog the site is quite pleasing to the eye with a simple heading and entries well dated. The overall presentation of the site draws heavily on a simple Google-like appearance, using a white background and an attractive font. However it can be difficult to search through previous blog entries. Instead of using a simple “Previous” link on the bottom of the page, all previous blog entries are catalogued in the months they were posted so searching for a previous blog can get difficult unless you can remember the month it was posted in. This (minor) problem could easily be solved using a search bar.

Overall the blog is quite impressive thanks to the extensive research that goes into the entries. The author seems to be quite a reliable source and usually provides opinions regarding the information contained in the blog. The information is a good additional learning tool both for those inside and out of the legal profession.  The simple but formal writing style combined with the interesting views the blog raises, means the blog is accessible and can be recommended to many audiences.

Barry Connolly.