Late July, Australian Government released the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Digital Platforms Inquiry final report. This follows the release of the ACCC’s Preliminary Report on 10 December 2018.
In the report, the ACCC set out 23 recommendations to respond to the substantial market power that has arisen through the growth of digital platforms, their impact on competition in media and advertising markets and implications for news media businesses, advertisers and consumers.
The ACCC report highlighted the importance of ensuring consumers are informed when giving companies access to their data, but it is difficult to actually get people to read and understand privacy notices, says Ravi Dutta-Powell, Senior Adviser, Behavioural Insights Team Sydney (BIT).
"We know there are simple ways to help – some of our recent research has shown that by including key points from Terms & Conditions in the form of a FAQ, you can increase comprehension by 36%. We also know what doesn’t work. Research has shown providing ‘layers’ – where customers initially only see short summaries, which, when clicked, expand to show more – has been found not to work".
"So why not put these findings back on the big companies? BIT thinks that the Government should use the ACCC process to develop a benchmark of what constitutes comprehension from consumers when it comes to privacy and data collection. Once this framework has been established, the Government should put the onus back on Facebook and Google to figure out the best way of getting consumers to understand what's going on".
"To ensure compliance, the Government could run random checks on users of the big tech companies, asking specific questions to see whether they understood the Terms & Conditions. If comprehension is poor, the companies should be penalised".
BIT uses practical findings from behavioural science to explore issues, develop solutions to address challenges, and make small, cost-effective changes to improve lives and public services. It also helps organizations focused on social impact to develop their own behavioural insights capacity.
