26 civil society organisations have written to the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Michelle Donelan MP, calling for the Data Protection and Digital Information (DPDI) Bill to be dropped. The signatories include trade unions as well as human rights, healthcare, racial justice, migrants rights, workers’ rights and criminal justice organisations. They are concerned that the government’s proposals will seriously weaken data protection rights in the UK, and could particularly harm people from marginalised communities.
The Bill will amend the UK GDPR as part of the reform of EU laws following Brexit. It was temporarily paused under Liz Truss’s premiership but in an interview with Politico, Donelan confirmed that the Bill will return to parliament this year and it is expected to be re-published next year.
Abigail Burke, Policy Manager at Open Rights Group said:
“Strong data protection is increasingly important as companies continue to find new ways to use our personal data to profile, manipulate, and profit off of us.
“The Data Protection and Digital Information (DPDI) Bill is a power grab by the government that will undermine data rights in the UK. The bill weakens data subjects rights and corporate accountability mechanisms, politicises the ICO, and expands the Secretary of State’s powers in numerous, undemocratic ways.
“The government needs to ditch these proposals and start again. We need a data protection law that builds on the protections created by the GDPR not one that weakens them. People’s rights – not government control or the profits
Read more