Much has been written about what a year under the auspices of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has looked like for personal data, and many have drawn conclusions that not much has actually changed.
Certainly, within the UK, there have been no fines issued under the legislation, as the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) focuses on education and giving businesses a chance to do the right thing and get their personal data houses in order.
But that doesn’t mean that change isn’t happening behind the scenes, both structurally and in attitudes.
A new survey by Kaspersky this month, for example, found that 41 per cent of respondents in the UK believe that businesses should do more to protect their personal data, including passwords, home addresses and bank account details, from hackers.
More than a quarter also think that there is not enough government support for data security and cyber protection, while 12 per cent have been concerned enough by a high-profile data breach that they have deleted one or more of their social media accounts.
In business, too, moves are afoot to give some of the principles enshrined in the GDPR, notably data portability, true flight.
Digi.me has been the data facilitator for The Personal Data Mobility Sandbox, a new and exciting project working with major brands including Facebook, the BBC, BT, Barclays and British Gas to explore the practical benefits to innovation and use cases when personal data is shared with consent.
Workshops have been a great success, and the report by the sandbox creators, business innovation consultancy Ctrl-Shift, summarising the findings and exploring next steps is due out next month.
Any move that helps us to shape our future and drive a better and healthier personal data economy is ultimately a good thing. Digi.me is doing all we can to build a better internet of tomorrow, and we are far from alone on this.
Change does not always come as fast as any of us would like – but the fact it will come is what ultimately matters.