How much information does your local supermarket keep about your shopping habits? Quite a lot. Many businesses track spending patterns for their own purposes. Now the government says it wants to make it easier to get the data in a helpful form, so that people can use it for their own benefit.

Brian Glick, editor in chief of Computer Weekly, told the Today programme that the Data Protection Act already allows people to ask any organisation to show them what information they hold on them.

And business minister John Hayes said that the government's new mydata scheme is about empowerment, "allowing (consumers) to make more informed decisions".

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