BEUC NEWS - 23.03.2022

Commercial surveillance is already everywhere. Everything we do - where we go, what we like and what we buy – is being monitored by companies and used to influence our choices and decisions. But it could get much worse.

To show how invasive commercial surveillance practices are and could become, the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) has made a humorous video on the surveillance economy, which combines situations from today with scenarios in the not-too-distant future.

View the video HERE

Wearing a health tracker to lower your health insurance premium, receiving invasive ads based on your past behaviour, exposed to software that recognises your emotions and listens to your conversations…welcome to the brave new world of the surveillance economy!

We believe the EU must take action to #StopCommercialSurveillance. There are many things the EU must do, some of which are currently under discussion, including measures to restrict the use of sensitive data and children’s data for tracking ads and to prohibit the use of dark patterns, further limiting the combination and use of data by Big Tech,  and preventing the use of harmful AI systems such as social scoring.