Exclusive:UK social media ban consultation under threat from legal action by Scots father over privacy issues
Scots father Harry Amies has launched a legal bid agains the UK government consultation into social media use
Parents have launched a high court challenge against the consultation designed to shape Keir Starmer’s under-16s social media ban policy.
Harry Amies, founder of Scottish campaign group Unplug.Scot, is one of two fathers who are taking legal action against Liz Kendall.
They claim the UK government’s consultation allows tech giants Google and Meta access to the data of those taking part.
Mr Amies, along with Pete Montgomery, have begun a challenge to the scheme run by the Science, Innovation and Technology secretary.
The pair claim the government’s consultation, Growing Up in an Online World, is neither fair nor rational and, as a result, is unlawful.
A pre-action letter has been sent to the Secretary of State setting out that any parent or child who responds to two of the consultation’s dedicated surveys is required to accept the provider’s privacy policy.
This policy gives the survey provider, Savanta, the power to share their personal data with Meta, Google and LinkedIn.
Mr Amies said: "The discovery that not only parents’ but children's personal responses to the consultation may be shared with Meta and Google, without their explicit consent or knowledge, represents an extraordinary corruption of UK democratic process.
“The consultation should be suspended until this mess is sorted out.”
A spokesman for Savanta said the company is working “in compliance with applicable data protection law and the Market Research Society Professional Code of Conduct”.
However, Mr Amies, an IT expert, says the privacy policy will prevent many would-be respondents from participating.
He and Mr Montgomery are asking to see communications between the Secretary of State and Savanta regarding the terms of the privacy policy.
They are asking the Secretary of State to ensure that Savanta undertakes not to share with any third parties the personal data obtained from the surveys.
If Ms Kendall does not do this within 14 days of the letter, the claimants will launch a judicial review claim.
The UK parliament is debating restrictions to children’s access to social media following proposals put forward during scrutiny of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill for England.
As well as an outright ban, restrictions being considered by MPs include curfews and disabling features such as endless scrolling.
London law firm Conrathe Gardner LLP, which specialises in public law challenges, is leading the legal action.
In a letter sent to government lawyers, solicitor Paul Conrathe argues the personal data sharing arrangement could make the consultation unlawful.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) was approached for comment.
In an earlier comment on the data sharing issue, the DSIT said the idea that data would be shared with Meta and Google was “absurd”.
However, the department spokesman did suggest that data would be shared if the respondent was logged into social media sites while completing the survey.
Mr Amies added: “The government’s weak response that ‘everybody's doing it’ is simply not OK. “The public do not expect their personal data to be captured and supplied to US ad-delivery firms when filling in a UK government consultation.
“They should not have to accept it.”
A Savanta spokesman said:“Savanta takes privacy and data security very seriously and does not share any personal data from its surveys with third-party social media sites.
“The reference in Savanta’s privacy policy to sharing personal data with Meta, Google and LinkedIn is not applicable to the ‘growing up in the online world: a national consultation’ survey.
“This reference relates to certain instances on savanta.com, not the sharing of survey data.”
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