In a recent hearing at the US Senate, the CEOs of Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple testified before the US Senate concerning antitrust issues. As the BBC’s James Clayton (North America Technology Reporter) noted, “central to the interrogation will be whether these tech giants are simply too big”. This issue has long been a concern in the EU, with many advocating the stricter regulation of tech conglomerates over the issue of big data and data privacy. With the UK set to break ties off further with the EU come January 2021, Government policy-makers will have to pay much more attention to big data developments within the private sectors.

Every month our story series will track these changes in tech policy globally with a focus on the UK and EU — Keeping you informed on key data trends emerging across the digital world.

While Parliament is on Summer Recess, looking at active bills there is surprisingly little tech or data legislation passing through Parliament. The last major data legislation was the Data Protection Act 2018. While passed only two years ago, the tech world develops rapidly. This was only spurred on by Covid-19 with Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, noting that the pandemic had seen two years of technological advancement in a mere two months. With this being the case, only three tech bills are currently active in either Houses of Parliament, with two yet to receive a date for their Second Reading: The Data Protection (Independent Complaint) Bill, The Digital Economy Act 2017 (Commencement of Part 3) Bill, and The Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill. The only one of much interest to the data world is the Data Protection (Independent Complaint) Bill.

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