This week former Facebook employee Sandy Parakilas – who has claimed covert harvesting was routine at the social network – told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee that the firm did not do enough to prevent, identify – or act upon – data breaches.

As a member of the committee, I asked Parakilas – who was employed in a role focused on data protection and app compliance at FB – if the situation had posed a challenge to democracy. He agreed, saying it had posed a “huge challenge” to democracy.