Government consults on third-party data intermediaries

Views sought on how to remove barriers and support the development of a trusted, effective data intermediaries market. 

The government has launched an open consultation on the subject of data intermediaries and seeks a wide range of views. 

• Consultation: Empowering people through data intermediaries 

We all generate large volumes of data through everyday activities, which is then held by data controllers in organisations. The government says this means leaves an imbalance between the organisations that collect and control the data, and the private individual who gets little benefit from it. 

Photo by Deng Xiang / Unsplash

Data intermediaries are a way to rebalance things. They are third-party organisations that act on behalf of individuals to exercise their data subject rights. In practice, that means helping people to access, manage and share their data more easily, enabling them to benefit from data they have contributed to or helped generate.  

Such services range from secure personal data storage to donating health data to support scientific research. 

Last year, the government issued a call for evidence on the subject, identifying a number of key issues affecting data intermediaries, individuals, data controllers, data processors and other stakeholders. These included the fact that people are often not even aware of their data subject rights or how they might benefit from them, and that third-party requests for access to data are often slow, with few incentives for data controllers to act on them. 

In addition, there has been some legal ambiguity or confusion over the precise roles of data intermediaries and the delegation of data subject rights to them. 

The new consultation sets out some legislative and non-legislative options to address these various issues, some direct and quick to implement, and others requiring longer-term structural change. They can be taken forward individually or together, and have been designed to be complementary. 

The consultation runs until 23.59pm on August 31.

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