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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Chi Onwurah

Own a smartphone? Then you’re paying the ‘app tax’. It’s a racket and it’s time the UK faced Apple and Google down

A thumb hovers over many app icons displayed on the glowing screen of a smartphone.
With no alternative platforms, app developers simply have to accept the terms set by Silicon Valley. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Debates around big tech and digital regulation can sometimes feel distant from the everyday concerns of voters. But the power that a small number of global tech companies hold over our lives goes far beyond what most people realise.

As chair of the parliamentary science, innovation and technology committee, I have spent years raising concerns about this: from the data they harvest and the digital “twins” they build of us, to the algorithms that decide what our children see.

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