This is the second time in one week that I have to engage with something written by a British academic on their assessment of Brexit & Ireland. In this case @HelenHet20 in @NewStatesman 🧵

1. @HelenHet20 Europe’s vaccine crisis has revealed the true nature of the EU?? Ireland has been a member state since 1973, has had more refs on EU topics than any other country & thus its political & administrative elite knows & understands EU @BrigidLaffan
2. Said elite & electorate never idealised EU-small states are acutely aware of limits of their power & deploy capacity with care-the Swedes coined the term smart states. Small states understand they have to be smart. @BrigidLaffan
3. Since 24th of June 2016 Ireland has been shown unstinting solidarity from 26 EU states & EU institutions. During this time, its nearest neighbour tried to power it off the diplomatic pitch & kept thinking that It could peel Ireland off from EU solidarity. @BrigidLaffan
4. On the vaccine debacle & it was one the lesson the Irish will take is that having a seat at the table & voice matters-it took an Irish Taoiseach & Foreign Minister a couple of hours to sort this out. @BrigidLaffan
5. Assertion that Commission sees Northern Ireland as leverage is bot bourne put by the facts-Commission worked very hard led by @MichelBarnier to try to find a workable solution to border on the island of Ireland. @BrigidLaffan
6. As to describing Northern Ireland as a U.K. ‘geopolitical weakness’-well that is one way of putting it. I would rather see it as divided & vulnerable society that has experienced a traumatic violent conflict. It is not post conflict -just largely post violence. @BrigidLaffan
7. #Brexit greatly disturbs the delicate balances on island of Ireland & within Northern Ireland. Brexit was not made on Ireland & given historical context no London Gov should play politics with it & this is what @Conservatives have done @BrigidLaffan
8. As to Ireland becoming collateral damage in EU’s need to cover its own vulnerability-what an assertion!! Again misunderstands Ireland’s preferences & interests. Ireland is a member state & has always shared interest with its partners to protect the single market. @BrigidLaffan
9. Ireland may be small but it has state capacity & an ability to navigate a world of deep interdependence. Part of that is EU membership as an anchor but it is not limited to EU. @BrigidLaffan
10Might be useful to put oneself in shoes of a late 19th early 20th century Irish nationalist. If you told him/her that 100 year after independence Ireland would be a member of a treaty bound polity based on formal equality not dominated by the UK-would be seen as a great outcome

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Recently, the @CNIL issued a decision regarding the GDPR compliance of an unknown French adtech company named "Vectaury". It may seem like small fry, but the decision has potential wide-ranging impacts for Google, the IAB framework, and today's adtech. It's thread time! 👇

It's all in French, but if you're up for it you can read:
• Their blog post (lacks the most interesting details):
https://t.co/PHkDcOT1hy
• Their high-level legal decision: https://t.co/hwpiEvjodt
• The full notification: https://t.co/QQB7rfynha

I've read it so you needn't!

Vectaury was collecting geolocation data in order to create profiles (eg. people who often go to this or that type of shop) so as to power ad targeting. They operate through embedded SDKs and ad bidding, making them invisible to users.

The @CNIL notes that profiling based off of geolocation presents particular risks since it reveals people's movements and habits. As risky, the processing requires consent — this will be the heart of their assessment.

Interesting point: they justify the decision in part because of how many people COULD be targeted in this way (rather than how many have — though they note that too). Because it's on a phone, and many have phones, it is considered large-scale processing no matter what.