Comment by cge

>Ireland isn't in Five Eyes,

That's true, and I suspect Ireland does not do as much surveillance as many other countries, but if I recall correctly, it does have a passphrase-or-prison law like the UK. I also get the sense that in a number of cases, it tends to view its laws as suggestions, for example, with the autism dossiers scandal [1], and in some sense, gets away with it in the way that a small country can. To me, it feels like a country where you don't need to worry about organized, systemic surveillance abuses, but do need to worry about departments or even individual employees who decide that they just don't like you.

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Health_autism_...