Open Consultation by the Minister of State for Digital Government and Data: “People generate large volumes of personal data through everyday activities, yet they currently derive limited benefit from it. Instead, this data is held by data controllers, creating a clear power imbalance between individuals and those organisations that collect and control their data.
Data intermediaries offer a way to rebalance this relationship. They offer the potential to empower individuals to take control of their own data, operating as third parties to enable those individuals to better access, share and manage their personal data. The types of data intermediary are varied, but they generally allow users to either regain control of who can access their data, or to share their data on their own terms. By revolutionising where and by whom data is held, intermediaries can unlock new, unrealised benefits from people’s data, ranging from innovative personalised AI services to groundbreaking new research enabled fully by the user’s informed consent.
Although personal data is constantly produced, its value is still overwhelmingly captured by traditional data controllers rather than by the individuals who generate it. While people have rights as data subjects to access their data, these rights are often under-utilised. Our call for evidence last year found that people’s awareness of what they can do with their data through third parties is limited.
There is a huge opportunity for the UK to use data more strategically, to unlock stronger competition across markets, helping to stimulate innovation and deliver sustained economic growth. The government recognises that intermediaries can play a vital role in unlocking competitive data‑driven markets and supporting innovation, productivity and growth, and is committed to creating the conditions for the easy and secure sharing and reuse of high‑quality data that intermediaries enable. This is a nascent and rapidly developing area of activity in the UK and globally, offering significant potential to enhance outcomes for people, businesses and the wider economy.
Responses to our call for evidence last year indicated there are three things that need to be achieved for intermediaries to be able to function better in the UK: legal ambiguities need to be addressed; data controllers must be confident providing people’s data to another party; and user awareness of intermediaries and their potential value needs to grow. Currently, the barriers around these three areas are limiting the uptake and growth of the sector. Responses suggest these barriers appear interrelated and mutually reinforcing, leading to a sector with potential that is yet to be fully realised.
If the barriers to the sector are addressed, the potential is huge. What if, instead of a data controller typically deciding how your data is used, you were able to exercise greater control over your data and confidently determine who has access to it? Or if you could donate it to research projects to enable new discoveries? Or if it were powering personalised, innovative new AI services that could securely combine your data from multiple sources to provide you with new insights or suggestions? Data intermediaries are essential to unlocking this vision…(More)”.
