1. Living Online Consumer research to inform consumer protections in the digital economy ACCAN Conference 12 Sept 2018
Lauren Solomon
Chief Executive Officer

2. CPRC’s Research Agenda – Living Online
CPRC research & policy submissions
Release of Consumer Data & the Digital Economy report (July ‘18)
Consumer Data Right - Data Standards Advisory Group
Digital Platforms Inquiry
Research Grant
$100,000 research project grant awarded to University of Melbourne consortia to investigate consumer data collection, profiling practices and discrimination.
Coordination & bringing policy community together
Hosted query:data conference 16th July 2018
Consumer Data Research Network
For consumer researchers working on consumer data issues- consumer behaviour, competition & consumer law, privacy, data ethics, machine learning.

3. Consumer data & the digital economy – report release July 2018
How do we define consumer data?
How data sharing is being enabled?
Benefits of consumer data
Emerging risks for detriment & discrimination
Australian knowledge, behaviour and attitudes towards data collection, sharing & use
Policy implications
Full report available:

4. Key research findings Australians value their privacy
Vast majority of Australians uncomfortable with companies sharing personal information for secondary purposes – Friends on social networks (71%), location data (71%), browsing history (72%), date of birth (73%), phone number (80%), device ID (83%), messages (86%), phone contacts (87%).
Privacy policies are not enabling comprehension or real choice
94% of Australians surveyed did not read all of the Privacy Policies that applied to them in the past 12 months
Of those that read at least one policy, 67% accepted terms they did not feel comfortable with
73% of those did so because it was the only way to access the product or service
Full report available:

5. Key research findings Australians expect their data to be used fairly
The majority of those surveyed found it unacceptable for companies to:
to charge different consumers different prices, based on their profile (88%)
collect data about them without their knowledge to assess eligibility or exclude from a loan or insurance (87%)
use payment information to exclude from certain essential products & services (82%)
Full report available:

6. Key research findings Significant consumer demand for policy reform
95% supported companies providing options about what data is collected and who it is shared with.
91% only wanted companies to collect data required for delivering the service.
73% support Government mandating the provision of options to consumers about what data is collected, who it is shared with and what it can be used for.
67% believe Government should develop protections to ensure consumers are not unfairly excluded from essential products or services based on the data or profile.
Full report available:

7. Policy implications Economy-wide policy & regulatory reforms required
including consideration of human rights, competition & consumer law, privacy and other fields – it’s a collective challenge
Deductive vs Inductive reasoning
Genuine choice & control
fundamental to operation of the competitive marketplace
consent – issues with privacy policies both for comprehension & choice
Greater transparency of consumer profiling
information & data asymmetry – power, transparency
inputs – quality of the data, use of proxies
scope for discrimination & exclusion
algorithmic auditing – regulatory powers
Full report available:

8. Thank you. For more information… Website: www.cprc.org.au
Twitter: CPRC_research
Consumer Data Research Network: contact Senior Research & Policy Officer, Phuong Nguyen on