Matt Shearer, CPO, Data Language comments on the UK Government’s Data Reform Bill
“The UK Government’s Data Reform Bill proposes a number of significant changes to the rules around how companies collect consumers’ personal information. Part of this includes changes to cookie consent, suggesting a one-stop data-privacy setting that will allow consumers to opt-out of tracking.
What the reforms miss however is that cookies and tracking are an outdated approach, to begin with. Cookies track viewer behaviour moving from one site to the next. Without understanding the full context – i.e. what the viewer thought or felt about what they saw online, what led them to view a particular piece of content etc, uses for the data generated will be relatively limited.
Although the Government has arguably made a good first step in developing its proposals for The Data Reform Bill, it’s clear that more work needs to be done to further encourage the industry in the right direction – i.e. away from spammy, bothersome tracking. This is a golden opportunity for us not to simply fix what’s already in use, but to start again to develop a best practice approach that works for everyone”.
