The way forward?
'Platforms "could" be required to be more transparent about what they are doing with consumer data and offer up more choices.'
They already are required to - by a little piece of legislation called the General Data protection Act (UK Data protection Act 2018). They simply ignore it, and the regulator seems to have no real clout to enforce it.
The biggest problem is the huge economic disparity between the offender and the regulator. The slurper behemoths have turnovers greater than the GNP of some nations, but the ICO is funded by UK registrant fees. Consequently the offender can win simply by making it too expensive to pursue enforcement (this has already happened). The second major hurdle is the transnational nature of the behemoths. This allows them to shuffle around to evade national legislation, as only the USA seems to allot itself transnational jurisdiction, and the behemoths are based there. The third (at least potential) problem is the noises being made by some UK politicians suggesting they want to dismantle the protections the GDPR ostensibly provides once we pass January 1st 2021.
Overall, there seems to be bu**er all that UK legislation can do to curb these behemoths. If anything is going to change, the public must vote with its mice. That could be supported by public education, but considering the power of (and contribution to GNP provided by) advertising there will be little enthusiasm for this.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
