This talk was triggered by, and concentrates on, ‘Data: A New Direction’, a very recent highly technical 146 page consultation on data sharing, open to everyone but clearly aimed at big business. Initially our interest was in the potential misuse of personal healthcare data, but research of the area showed that the issues were potentially much broader than this. ‘New Direction’ certainly intends to change the GDPR to make it more difficult for citizens to know what is being done with their data, while making it easier for the government and corporations to access, reuse and potentially misuse it.
But the ‘New Direction’ consultation occurs at the same time as three more actions by government also increasing the ability for others to access and use our data. Why are all these threatening changes happening at the same time? Why is access to our personal data critical now? Does this all tie together somehow?
On the basis that ‘context’ is everything the talk starts with a brief reminder of the more recent history of global corporate intervention in our NHS and how we got to the terrible place we now find ourselves. The changes suggested and use/misuse of data are discussed along with probable reasons for them. Towards the end bigger, even more disturbing commercial and socio-political changes are outlined and a case is made that these are driven by two ambitions that may be difficult for the political industrial complex to relinquish: massive profits and the power covertly to control. Both ambitions depend upon free access to exploit vast amounts of our personal data, and denying them this may be the only way to prevent the loss of any genuine democracy in the future.
Each slide has background information in the “speaker’s notes” section. Click on the 3 dots on the right of the slide number, and then “open speakers notes” to view these.
Doctors in Unite 