Ministers, realising that they cannot resort to the power of words, have opted instead for words of power. The result has been the digital economy bill, created by David Cameron and being rammed through parliament by his successor, Theresa May. Peers on the committee in the upper house that scrutinises parliamentary bills have been astonished at the broad powers ministers are arrogating in the name of better governance. This is not so much data sharing as data copying. Even more remarkable is that the bill allows for information collected by private firms providing public services to be shared with government bodies.

Source: The Guardian February 05, 2017 18:11 UTC