Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I'd just like to start by congratulating you and the members of your committee for the excellent job you've done in hosting and chairing these sessions. I think it's done exactly what we hoped it would do. It has built on the work we started in London. I think it's a model for co-operation between parliamentary committees in different countries that are working on the same issues and benefiting from related experience and insights.
The sessions have been split between what we call social media companies yesterday and other data companies here. Really what we're talking about is that while there are different functions, these are all basically huge data businesses. What we're interested in is how they gather their data, what consent they have for doing so and how they use it.
Across the sessions, time and again we saw companies unwilling to answer direct questions about how they gather data and how they use it. Whether it's asking how Amazon and Facebook share data.... Even though this is widely reported, we don't know. My colleague, Mr. Lucas, asked about LinkedIn and Microsoft data being shared. It's possible to totally integrate your LinkedIn data with your Microsoft tools, and a quick Google search can tell you exactly how to it.
I don't understand why companies are unwilling to talk openly about the tools they put in place. People may consent to use these tools, but do they understand the extent of the data they're sharing when they do? If it's as simple and straightforward as it seems, I'm always surprised that people are unwilling to talk about it. For me, these sessions are important because we get the chance to ask the questions that people won't ask and to continue to push for the answers we need.
Thank you.