With the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill at Committee Stage in the UK House of Lords, here's a round-up of what's changing with data protection in the UK.
You’ll have weaker rights to challenge how data is used and shared with less ability to find that out in the first place.
The #DataGrabBill lets UK government Ministers approve international data transfers, even if the country lacks data protection rights or remedies for data subjects.
This will make the UK data laundering hub, putting the UK's adequacy agreement with the EU at risk.
The government will have "the right to inspect the bank account of anyone who claims a state pension."
Welfare surveillance powers slipped into the Data Protection and Digital Information are so broadly drawn that they'll let the Department for Work and Pensions surveil the finances of all benefit claimants, including Child Benefit and the State Pension.
Laws that protect our personal data from abuse are being dissolved.
With the government sneaking in welfare surveillance powers to grab the data of people claiming benefits, our embattled right to privacy needs defending.
The Data Protection and Digital Information Bill “is removing or watering down existing legal safeguards that apply to automated decision-making and AI, thus depriving Regulators of the tools they need to intervene when AI goes wrong."
Welfare surveillance powers have been smuggled into the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill.
The Department for Work and Pensions will be able to access the financial information of any benefit claimant – from Universal Credit to Child Benefit and the State Pension.
The Netherlands benefits scandal saw thousands being unjustly accused of fraud and having their benefits incorrectly withdrawn after errors in data sharing and automated decision-making.
The Data Protection and Digital Information Bill weakens protections against solely automated decisions that have life-changing or significant impacts.
This will increase the risk of harms.
Indeed the DWP is already being criticised for its use of AI, despite warnings of algorithmic bias.
If you don’t know what data is being held about you, it’s harder to challenge decisions or correct mistakes that are driving unjust outcomes.
But even if we can get access, the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill lets organisations refuse requests to erase or correct data if they lack resources to do so.
As AI is trained on data, any inaccurate data means automated systems will continue to make mistakes and biases become embedded.
As the Department for Work and Pensions isn't being transparent over its automated systems while expanding its use, there are real concerns of injustice.
In combination with weakened protections against faulty automated decision-making and curtailed rights to access our data, welfare surveillance powers in the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill are an injustice waiting to happen.
Data protection is a "critical line of defense against government overreach and the continued weaponisation of technology against racialised and migrant communities."
Read more about the dangers of the #DataGrabBill from the Racial Justice Network.
"AI raises the stakes... data is not only used to make decisions about you, but rather to make deeply powerful inferences about people and communities."
Beware greater automated decision-making with fewer safeguards over our data.
The fight for algorithmic justice is imperiled by the #DataGrabBill.