Hello there! I assume if you landed here, you are either interested in my ramblings about data protection, privacy, planning, urban design, and cybersecurity, or you have somehow put the wrong website in the search bar. In either case, this is a real website and not some weird fake website that was created in the 2010s. I just prefer the really basic formatting that the template has to offer; it is low maintenance, and I do not expect many readers.

Who is Daniel?

I was a county councillor for Fingal County Council in Dublin, Ireland. I was the youngest councillor elected for the Greens in 2019 and the youngest ever councillor elected to Fingal at the time! It was great, and I loved most of it.

In 2022, I was elected as the Deputy Mayor of Fingal and became the youngest Deputy Mayor of Fingal. In my one-year term, I chaired council meetings, went to numerous events representing the council, and visited Copenhagen, where we learned from their experiences converting the city to a more walkable (and cyclable) city. I also visited Palestine and got to see Ramallah, Jerusalem, Hebron, and Bethlehem. This experience really radicalised me on this issue as I got to see the apartheid (and it is apartheid) in the Occupied Territories with my own eyes. I regularly think about my short time there and that those I chatted with are probably dead now.

During this time, I was also studying for my BSc Honours in Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics at TU Dublin Blanchardstown. Computing came naturally to me when I was younger, and I felt like this degree was the best way to explore this interest. In reality, I don’t think I am a coder. I enjoy working with people, law, and policy in a more client-facing role.I did love my degree though and made some great friends along the way (shoutout to Rohan and Danny), and that knowledge of the cybersecurity industry will help me for life.

In July 2023, I resigned from the council. I knew for a while I did not want to run in the next local elections, which were in June 2024, and preferred to give the short experience and opportunity to run to someone else. It was an interesting decision because I look back on my four years in Fingal with love and believe that I did well. But I also remember the late nights, the struggle to pay rent, being evicted and then travelling from Rathmines to Swords, the emotional toll that housing and homeless cases took on me, especially those that I could not help, all while studying, and the fact that I needed a restart in life. I needed to start fresh somewhere, build up a career, and enjoy life again. I hope that one day I get the opportunity to return to politics, either working for a person/party/organisation, or running for local or general elections again.

This break led me to my Masters (and a topic I had an interest in for a while) in Data Protection and Privacy, Law, and Computing. The Masters was the first time that I fell in love with education. I genuinely loved reading about European Data Protection Law, or Brexit, or other countries privacy laws, and the ethics of it all. I know now, at 25, that this is what I want to do for my career in some way. It took a long time to discover this, and it is a lesson to anyone out there who feels lost or unsure about their studies.

My current company, PrivacyEngine, paid for my MA through a scholarship programme, and I now work as a privacy consultant (essentially a DPO for hire) who works with small and medium-sized businesses and charities. Its a great way to learn how little most people and organisations really care about data protection, and I have built data protection from the ground up in these organisations, something that I don’t think I could have done with a larger consulting firm.

This blog is my thoughts and life experiences so far, with the hope that I can help educate or inform a few people with it! I hope that my life so far adds a lot of context to the stories I tell! Do not be afraid to reach out on anything I write, either to correct or discuss an issue!