Are we worried about the data-gobbling habits of Facebook and its ancillaries – private companies amassing data with less-than scrupulous regard for our privacy? You bet. In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica revelations, anyone beyond the dwindling band of tech-utopians will be more aware of how easy it is to offer up your data to a tech platform or third parties, without understanding who could access it.

But are we concerned or even aware enough about the speed of Artificial Intelligence, or AI, gathering by authoritarian governments, potentially with far greater impact on the global data eco-system and our own lives? Not remotely. Of the emerging interfaces of policy, regulation and digital...