The controversy surrounding tech giant Facebook and consultancy Cambridge Analytica that millions of social media users had their details harvested without their knowledge is deepening by the day.
And every day billions of dollars are being wiped off the value of Facebook, one of the world’s biggest companies.
It may just be that the digital era is entering a new phase, with greater elements of control being brought in.
For those of us who now consider Facebook a big part of their lives, including the many companies that use Facebook and other social media to capture markets, too much regulation would not be welcomed.
But the reality is that the clamour to rein in these companies is at feverish levels on both sides of the Atlantic. The direction of travel seems to have been set.
In any case, the landscape was already set to change with the arrival of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on 25 May.
Perhaps we will see a new approach to protecting data- with blockchain playing a part, as some observers predict.