![Peter Harris, chairman of the Productivity Commission, says companies and governments must be willing to share data ...](/content/dam/images/g/s/z/2/0/q/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gv43ab.png/1490167335134.jpg)
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Reluctant banks, wary energy suppliers, cautious governments and indifferent supermarkets need to change the way they look at data to maintain their social licence to hold it, the head of the Productivity Commission says.
Peter Harris, the commission's chairman, told the Committee for Economic Development of Australia that government and business holders of data underestimate the risk that consumers will begin to withhold the data they have until now willingly supplied if they don't see benefits for themselves from the exchange.
"Consumers give and give, but share so little in the opportunities [created by their data]," Mr Harris said.
The commission recommended a new right for consumers to own the data that governments and corporations collect about them in a draft report in November.
![Telstra was one of several large companies concerned that a customer right to data could benefit their commercial rivals.](/content/dam/images/g/t/v/p/z/q/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1487736030359.jpg)
But National Australia Bank, ANZ Banking Group, Telstra, Google and Uber warned the government in submissions that a widely defined consumer right to data could require them to hand over commercially sensitive customer insights to rivals.
Mr Harris said on Wednesday the major banks were mixed in their response to the recommendation, with some accepting the idea and "at least one" remaining to be to be convinced. MLC Life – part owned by NAB – was supportive but the Insurance Council wanted the new data right created by "industry by industry" negotiation.
No submission
Energy companies – which stand accused of price gouging in retail electricity – "mostly preferred to remain apart from any general consumer reform". Coles and Woolworths, which run extensive loyalty programs and gain intimate customer insights from tracking purchases, did not make a submission on the issue.
More than 70 per cent of us hand over our personal data on social media, and more than 80 per cent of us are in a supermarket or airline loyalty program, but more than half of us seek to mislead those same sites by messing with our information. We believe our data is being used to obtain medical and educational breakthroughs – even though the data can't be used for these purposes "due to regulation intended to protect us, the sources of that data", he said.
![Coles and Woolworths supermarkets did not make a submission to the Productivity Commission inquiry into data.](/content/dam/images/g/u/6/p/3/u/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1486362777850.jpg)
"We sort of trust them, and yet we don't," Mr Harris said. "There must be a tipping point, where the balance of willingness tips way from data supply towards data restriction."
Businesses seemed to assume that as long as they kept consumers' data safe, and complied with the Privacy Act, there was no need to "consider the implications of today's active tracking, and profiling and all the other techniques now available to big data collectors and users", he said.
They think they own it
"It was, a few went so far to say, their proprietary data now."
![Electricity suppliers - which stand accused of price gouging - are reluctant data sharers.](/content/dam/images/g/p/7/e/q/1/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1488838048725.jpg)
Mr Harris said Australian data keepers mostly lagged far behind the global leaders, and maintaining the community trust in data stewardship necessary to maintain the flow of data couldn't be left to a few standout government departments and corporations needed a community-wide sharing of the benefits.
He said this was in the interests of corporations and governments because they stood to benefit the most – whether from exploiting customer data to gain new insights or to improve the health and education of citizens – and lose financially from a breach. He noted that US telecoms company Verizon paid $US350 million ($450 million) less for Yahoo following a data breach by the internet company.
Mr Harris said a new right to trade data could re-invigorate national competition policy, not just in insurance, banking and telecoms but also in health and education, and yield comparably significant economic and social benefits.
For example, he said energy consumers should have a right to send their usage data directly to a competitor or to a third party supplier such as a solar panel installer to get a tailored offer.
But he said many ambiguities in the law – such as who owns the data generated by cars, smart energy meters and other devices – needed to be clarified and public servants in particular needed to undergo a major shift in their instinct to conceal data.
The Data Sharing and Release Act proposed by the commission is intended to be "a legislated signal written in the skies over Canberra and other capital cities to the guardians of data sets long inaccessible that the outmoded restrictions and personality politics that have prevented data linkage and analysis might now be relieved".