TECH
25
FORTUNE.COM // NOVEMBER 2019
HOLDING A BIG STICK
OVER BIG TECH
Europe has some of the world’s toughest privacy laws. Ireland’s
Helen Dixon is the person who may finally enforce them—and U.S. tech
giants like Facebook and Google could pay the price.By David Meyer
BIG TECH IS WAITING for the other shoe to drop.
Helen Dixon holds the shoe.
Some 16 months after the European Union
introduced the world’s toughest online privacy
laws, the most obvious targets of those rules—
American technology giants such as Face-
book and Google—have yet to be seriously
censured. What happens next is largely in
the hands of Dixon, Ireland’s data protection
commissioner, who is responsible for enforc-
ing the strict General Data Protection Regula-
tion (GDPR) in that country.
Almost by accident, Ireland has become a
primary privacy battlefield. Because it offers
relatively low corporate taxation—with a
headline rate of 12.5% versus an EU average of
ON HER WATCH
The many multi
nationals with
headquarters in
Ireland now fall
under Dixon’s
jurisdiction.
SEAN BREITHAUPT
