Ms Tanya Ward:

One of the issues is that many of the platforms we access are free. How do they make their money? By exposing us to microtargeting, advertisements or by selling our data onto a third party. We probably need a bigger conversation in our society about that. If one wants to protect data, it may be necessary to pay a small subscription fee. It could be very small, just enough to ensure that data is not being exploited. The issue probably is that many people do not realise their data is being exploited in the way that it is. As Ms Cooney said, we are not educating people at a young age about what is actually happening to their data and their data profile and how it could be used against them in later life. Certain behaviours online could be used against them by insurance brokers, etc., because those behaviours might predict they may get a form of cancer by drinking, eating certain foods or whatever. There are many things out there we need to be very concerned about, but part of the debate should be about whether we pay or do not pay. That is probably what we all need to talk about.