Mr. Dale Sunderland:

There is a two-pronged approach. First, the companies have an obligation to drive awareness of their products and services. Deputy Dooley raised this issue. More could be done at that point. It is in the context of a broad number of services and what is nearly information overload in some respects, for example, when someone hits a webpage and is asked to consent to cookies, etc. There is an element of user fatigue in all of that. One of the answers is better user interfaces, which we touched on earlier, and better ways to bring information, including surface information, to individuals. Let us not forget that these companies have some of the smartest and most capable and talented designers in the world working for them so it is not just about designing a good user experience. There must also be better ways to bring this type of information to the surface for users. That is something of which we are very mindful.

We also have an obligation through our guidance functions. The paradox is that guidance we have published where, for example, we spoke about how people might be nudged towards choices online, etc., has not been picked up so there is a challenge there for us. We are trying to consider how we can best tackle the important issue of user awareness. It is in a context where we increasingly function in an online connected world. There are significant risks if companies do not implement their data processing practices correctly and if users are unable to inform themselves or are unaware of the risks but also the choices they have to control their data.