Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans his Department has to prevent social media platforms accessing individual's personal data and internet history for the purposes of generating advertising revenue.

The use of personal data for the purpose of targeted online advertising is subject to safeguards found in the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations 2003.

The Data Protection Act imposes strict obligations on organisations to process people’s data fairly and lawfully and to ensure that any data collected is held securely. As part of this, organisations must ensure they have a legal basis for processing data, are clear and transparent about how personal data will be handled, and ensure that the data is processed in a way which individuals would expect. Organisations which fail to comply may be subject to enforcement action by the Information Commissioner’s Office.