Behind the scenes

News and views

Michelle Donelan, the Secretary of State for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), announced a new, British, approach to data protection at the October 2022 Conservative Party Conference. It seems the Johnson government’s new direction for data, which culminated in the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill introduced in Parliament in July, is to be revised through more consultation, though it appears not a public one.

GDPR isn’t perfect and it would be great if the UK could be bold in changing data protection laws to build on and move beyond GDPR. Unfortunately, the Bill as it stands takes backwards steps rather than confronting future – or even current – challenges. Its focus on simply reducing regulation, especially for small businesses, is misplaced and out of step with the kind of regulation the modern data economy needs.

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When I first started CONNECTED BY DATA, one of the first things I thought about was the website’s privacy policy. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, if we could demonstrate the kind of approaches that we’re advocating for in our own practice. But then there was so much other stuff to do – website content, hiring, finance, strategy work, engagement, projects, fundraising, writing, and so on and on – that it was easier to use a couple of off-the-shelf data protection policies for recruitment and just to not even track website analytics.

Then we got going on our advocacy work, and started organising events. And this meant we needed to collect data – personally identifiable data – and about privacy advocates! The worst kind of data subject. We knew we had to take a proper look at our data protection approach.

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Our work at CONNECTED BY DATA is about improving data governance, so that organisations are more effective at making decisions about data towards justice, equity and sustainability. We believe this means that data governance needs to be collective, democratic, participatory, deliberative and powerful. This post unpicks what these terms mean in practice.

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Weeknotes are a combination of updates and personal reflection written on a routine basis

Do you collect, use or share data?

We can help you build trust with your customers, clients or citizens

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Do you want data to be used in your community’s interests?

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