merelygifted:

Regulators and campaign groups have warned a UK Parliamentary inquiry that the increasing collection, use and storage of data by corporations poses a serious risk to privacy and security.

The Human Rights Committee hearing into the right to privacy and the “digital revolution” follows the scandal last year of 87 million unauthorised Facebook users’ details being shared with Cambridge Analytica.

In its submission, the Information Commissioner’s Office said: “The mass collection and aggregation of data, particularly by companies with data-driven business models, underpins the risks to individuals’ privacy at a very fundamental level.

“Businesses have always collected data on customers and users, but the rapid development of technology, particularly online, has allowed this collection and aggregation to be done on an industrial scale. It has reached the point where data collection is not simply a means to a business end, but the end in itself. Data has become the commodity.”

In April, the ICO fined commercial pregnancy and parenting “club” Bounty £400,000 for illegally sharing personal information belonging to more than 14 million people.

The company shared approximately 34.4 million records between June 2017 and April 2018 with credit reference and marketing agencies, including Acxiom, Equifax, Indicia and Sky. …