The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 is a new piece of legislation recently past through the UK parliament that I’m really concerned about.
It’s been sold to the public with the promises that it will:
Make grocery bills cheaper.
Lead to cheaper energy prices.
Reduce time spent in traffic.
Give NHS Staff more time with patients (by cutting bureaucracy).
Put £10 billion into the economy (over 10 years).
Provide every person with a digital identity (verified by your biometric data), which some have dubbed the digital ‘Brit’ ID Card.
Sounds too good to be true? You’re not alone in thinking this.
The Act is a long document and I’ve not had the time to read it all. But from what I have read, I’m concerned about:
Removal Of My Right to Withhold My Consent To Sharing Data And Provides No Facility For Opting Out (Fully Or In Part). This was a vital part of previous legislation around data.
My Privacy – This legislation allows sharing of medical records, meaning that everyone in the NHS (and potentially other public and private organisations) will be able to see everything about my past and present health. Surely I should be able to decide who can see what about me, but this new law allows complete data sharing through a process called automated decision making. In addition, it allows sharing without making the individual aware of what exactly is being shared and why. It feels like a data free for all.
How Safe & Secure My Data Will Be – More data online and more data transferred/shared increases the risk of it falling into the wrong hands. Either by accident or through a deliberate attempt to access/steal data through hackers or advanced AI. What I’ve read about this legislation does little to reassure me about the safety and security of my data.
Potential For Data To Be Misused/Abused – There is a great potential for this data to be misused/abused by those with power and unlimited access.
No Say When It Comes To Deleting Data – The legislation doesn’t seem to have a mechanism for deleting data. There may be several reasons to delete data, for example if it is out of date or inaccurate.
The Government Having More Control On What Data Can Be Accessed – The legislation lets Government and officials/organisations have more control on what data can be accessed about an individual and under what circumstances. This feels fundamentally flawed, as those in power/control of the data could again misuse/abuse the data.
One of the things I wanted to do in 2025 is to keep a diary. To record my memories, moods and triggers. I decided an App might be better than one of the hundred notebooks that I have. So I decided to try the app Daybook. I have to say, I am really rather impressed. Here are some screenshots:
Daybook has got an endless list of features, making it suitable for anyone. But here are the ones that I use and like:
Daily notification reminders, for which you choose the time.
Post Tags.
Attaching photos to posts.
Use both on the App on my phone and web browser.
Mood Check-In.
Security features: Pin lock, password and biometrics used to secure your data.
Calendar to see how often I’m making entries.
Data graphs to track my progress with mood, etc.
I love this app. I have been using it for a few months and more often or not I complete a daily diary and mood check-in. It has so much potential and so many different uses for different users.
To balance this here are the annoying or frustrating aspects of the App:
It would be great if I could write my To Do Lists on there and tick items off as I complete them. Instead I continue to use the Notes app to do this.
Tags not allowing capital letters and Android App defaultly wanting to put the first character in caps. Means you have to press the first letter twice, very annoying. I have been in touch with the developer about this and they assure me that the next version of the app will be fixed, but they did not give a timescale for this.
No ability to attach short videos to your posts.
No ability to add links into posts. Or save webpages.
The price is expensive at £3.49 per month for a premium subscription. This means I probably will switch to a cheaper app in the long term.
No mention of if diary entries are encrypted, I hope to goodness that they are.
After 6 months of using the Medtronic insulin pump and it having a massive positive impact on my health via its SmartGuard feature, it has broken. The pistol/motor stopped working.
I want to start this post by saying thank you to Medtronic who have been amazing at organising an immediate replacement. They answered my call in the early hours of Sunday morning and got a new pump out to me within 48 hours.
I had to switch back to multiple daily injections, but my blood sugars were instantly less well controlled. Giving me several incidents of hyperglycemia in the 48 hours and a lot less time in range. I didn’t realise how reliant I had become on the pump at keeping my blood sugars in normal range. I can only hope that this short period doesn’t affect my Hba1C test results going forward as this could impact on my ability to have surgery to fix the hole in the roof of my mouth.
It has made me super thankful for my pump and the alarms when things go wrong or might be going wrong. I’m hoping this pump doesn’t do the same thing in six months. I will keep you updated.
Do you have a Medtronic MiniMed pump? Ever had any problems with it? Where did you go for help and support around it? Let me know in the comments below.
