As is often pointed out, data is the new currency, especially now it can be crunched quickly by powerful Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems.

That might help explain why a concerning piece of legislation going through Parliament will make it easier for government, the NHS and the police to use your personal information as they see fit.

The Data Use & Access Bill – which you can read here and is currently at committee stage in the House of Commons – owes a lot to the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill created by the previous, Conservative government.

Published in October 2024, Labour’s version of the new law weakens General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), allowing more data to be processed with fewer safeguards.

Essentially, this Bill would enshrine a shift away from the principle that personal data belongs to the individual whose consent is required.

The Bill is a hydra-headed monster which covers a number of areas. Here are the five that look the most significant to us.

1. Automated decision-making

Ever had the experience of “Computer Says No?” Or had your social media account suddenly restricted by an algorithm? You may have been a victim of automated decision-making.

This Bill would reverse the current default where people have a right not to be subject to automated decision-making (unless as part of a contract or having given explicit consent), to one in which automated decision making would be generally permitted.

Allowing public bodies to use automated decision-making opens the way for the police or intelligence agencies to use AI to decide who to profile and for the NHS to make decisions about who is entitled to healthcare.

AI companies would be exempted from the need to answer questions about who has access or inform people they are collecting data, making it very hard to get any transparency about how information was acquired or redress misuse of data.

2. Personal data to be made widely available

Currently, the law says that, in general, data collected for one purpose can only be used for that purpose. This recognises the individual’s right to control to what use their personal information can be put.

The Data Use and Access Bill would change that, making it easy for organisations to share information.

The government claims that such changes will reduce the bureaucratic burden on public sector workers, thus saving taxpayers’ money:

“It will also make patients’ data easily transferable across the NHS so that frontline staff can make better informed decisions for patients more quickly, freeing up 140,000 hours of NHS staff time every year, speeding up care and improving patients’ health outcomes.”

Of course, having all your medical records in one place can have advantages. The NHS has long been trying to do that – its failed attempt to create a patient record system earlier this century cost the taxpayer at least £10 billion!

These days the NHS is increasingly sharing data with outside organisations. The Centre for Improving Data Collaboration is a “business unit” set up to create agreements between researchers and commercial partners for the sharing of “health data assets” – and how to get “value” from the arrangements.

It’s reasonable to be uncomfortable with the transactional language being applied to such personal information about yourself and your loved ones.

In recent years a quiet transfer of personal information has been taking place in the NHS. In 2021, despite concerns that few people knew about it or had the chance to opt out, medical information from GP practices was transferred to NHS Digital, the new technology partner of the NHS. NHS Digital holds this data which it says will be shared for “research and planning” purposes unless you opt out.

One such research partner is Our Future Health, an organisation made up of public, charity and private organisations including major pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca and Pfizer.

Can you sense a possible conflict of interest?

The NHS has a track record of data breaches. In a piece of research published in 2022, the British Medical Journal revealed “failures by NHS data users to comply with the terms of their agreements for managing and using data they received from NHS Digital.”

The report went on to say that these were these were “just one example of failures of NHS data policy and practice over the past decade”.

3. Less accountability for data users

The Bill would remove the obligation on police to log a reason for accessing data.

Historically, this has been an important protection for the public – in Estonia, a country which has pioneered digitalisation, it is a criminal offence for a doctor or police officer to look at someone’s data for no reason, and all searches are recorded for the citizen to see.

The UK government says that “removing unnecessary manual logging requirements” to enable police to look up persons of interest on the police database more easily will save money.

Which system would you prefer?

4. Another step advancing digital ID

On top of all this, the Data Bill creates a new framework for digital verification services – in other words, it’s another step advancing digital ID.

As this article in the Telegraph explains, the bill will enshrine the creation of a new government-backed certification for digital ID to be used by pubs and shops to check the age of a customer.

At the same time, as campaigners Big Brother Watch point out, the bill fails to include a right for members of the public to opt out by using a non-digital form of ID.

5. Finally, in allowing the Secretary of State to change some of the key definitions, the Bill prepares the ground for further changes without parliamentary scrutiny.

Please look out for a call to action on this Bill from us soon; in the meantime you can find a detailed briefing on it by Big Brother Watch here and a webinar hosted by the Open Rights Group here:

The Data Use & Access Bill is typical of the erosion of rights, and the undermining of consent, that Together formed to combat… 

Please join us as a member today so we can fight these challenges more effectively.

We were formed initially of course in opposition to digital medical certification in the UK (vaccine passports) – effectively scrapped soon after we presented the original 200,000 Together Declaration signatures to 10 Downing Street in January 2022.

By mobilising supporters, we were then a big part of the huge 66,000 responses to Government on Digital ID consultation – and central to the “huge public backlash” to Central Bank Digital Currencies with over 50,000 official consultation responses.

We campaigned to MPs and the Financial Conduct Authority to prevent “debanking” for political reasons, alongside campaign groups UsForThem and Free Speech Union. This was won collectively, although the snap election in 2024 meant it was not put into legislation.

But the state overreach isn’t going away – and we can only keep raising awareness and mobilizing on issues like these thanks to the support of members, so:

Please join us HERE today, so we can do MUCH more – and work towards the truly free society we all want to see. Thank you!

This article (Data Use & Access Bill: Government, NHS, Police expand access to your data) was created and published by #together and is republished here under “Fair Use”