An individual complained to the DPC that the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) disclosed his personal financial details without his consent, to a number of individuals against whom CAB had taken legal proceedings. CAB advised the DPC that the proceedings in question were under the Proceeds of Crime Act, 1996-2016 (PoCA), the purpose of which is to identify and confiscate property, established to the satisfaction of the High Court, to be the proceeds of crime. CAB stated the information contained in the subject documentation was required to establish the provenance of property the subject matter of the proceedings. CAB outlined that the personal data of the complainant was intertwined with the personal data of the individuals being prosecuted and could not be redacted from the court documents. The DPC noted such proceedings are governed by section 158(1) of the Data Protection Act, 2018 (the Act) which provides that the GDPR and Law Enforcement Directive as transposed in the Act may be restricted in order to ensure the protection of judicial independence and judicial proceedings.

As set out in Section 101(2) of the Act, the DPC is not competent for the supervision of data processing operations of the courts when acting in their judicial capacity. The DPC advised the complainant that CAB prepared the court documents for the purposes of court proceedings and that supervision of data processing operations of the courts when acting in their judicial capacity is assigned to a Judge appointed by the Chief Justice pursuant to section 157 of the Act. The DPC provided the complainant with the contact details for the assigned judge.