The Joy of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Many thanks to the EU for introducing the General Data Protection Regulation. In recent weeks I have received dozens of emails from companies pleading with me to continue as their valued customer. Most of them I know very little about but they appear to have my details. I may have bought a bike tyre, a vacuum spare part, some printer inks or a Christmas present from them several years ago. Just as likely is that one of these companies has sold my email address to other online retailers or services. Try stopping Virgin Trains from harassing you to download their app and book tickets at prices that are as bizarre as their excuses for trains not running. Even the Economist magazine makes it almost impossible to delete their weekly invitation to subscribe.

Like millions of others, I have been inundated with a tide of promotions every day by rapacious companies who are destroying the internet with their unsolicited offers. It has been almost impossible to stop the flow of puerile marketing. And now Halleluya, every day in recent weeks as the deadline for GDPR approaches, I have delighted in unsubscribing from almost all of them as they seek my permission to continue to harangue me with what they think is clever marketing because I once bought something that I probably would never buy again, like a Virgin train ticket.

I now have an almost empty inbox, it has made life so much freer and healthier, it is a 'timesend'. No longer the pinging of unsolicited emails in the early hours or the end of month avalanche of payday promotions. Thank you to the EU for this fine piece of legislation, which has been adopted by the UK government so that in the unwelcome event that Brexit ever takes place GDPR will be retained. It may yet protect us from the marketing of chlorine-washed chicken and other environmentally unsound trash from the USA.

I now have free time to use the internet to search for things that I need and to find information. The things we always hoped that the internet would deliver with reliable efficiency and but it was a naive trust. According to the advertising agencies, the era of push marketing was supposed to be finished and the internet would allow customers to select products and services. The global digital corporations have scuppered this hope by exploiting their vast list of users to sell online adverts that intrude into every online search. GDPR has not stopped the adverts but it has eliminated a lot of the dross that threatened to strangle the internet.

I wish