Interesting things are happening in the UK at the moment, on many fronts, but not least personal data. For a country still bound by the European data regulations (GDPR) it may be reasonable to assume this would mean the country would have the least amount of controversy around personal data use. However the National Health Service (NHS) there seems to have done it’s best to find every loophole possible under the guise of “consent” and “opt-out”.

The Financial Times in the UK has released a brilliant short film that summarizes nearly everything that is wrong with the current data use and privacy landscape. The film does an excellent job of presenting the highly possible ‘existential threat’. The argument many people make when they freely and unwittingly cede control of their data is simply “I don’t mind a few targeted adverts, in fact they are quite handy. Besides, I’ve got nothing to hide”. Unfortunately that misses a couple of quite serious points. 

There has been considerable action from governments across the globe to introduce regulations, restrictions and even fines for big tech companies in recent weeks. The goal? To limit the power that big tech has. But are the measures that are being taken addressing the problems that have contributed to the growing power companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon have in the world?

When one of the biggest digital advertising companies in the world, announces that it has made the decision to eliminate the use of third-party cookies, the key piece of technology that a $330B (US) a year industry relies upon to function, it’s hard not to notice.