Australian industry touts data analytics self-regulation scheme

Members of the Australian business community have partnered to develop a self-regulation scheme they hope will keep the heavy hand of government out of their data analytics activities.

Former ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel has agreed to chair the inaugural board of Data Governance Australia, where he will be joined by representatives from the country’s largest loyalty schemes, banks, shopping centres, and analytics firms.

Samuels today said DGA would develop a business-led code of conduct and compliance regime that will include data impact assessments modelled on the Commonwealth's privacy impact assessments (PIAs).

He said eight years at the consumer watchdog had taught him that “government should only step in to regulate when business fails to do it itself”.

The self-regulation scheme will be based on “integrity, accountability and transparency”, Samuels said. He conceded that “sometimes what we could do and what we should do are different things”.

iTnews has sought more detail on a timeline for the code’s release.

Victorian Small Business and Innovation Minister, Philip Dalidakis, suggested the DGA could also become an independent vehicle for voluntary data breach notifications, thereby addressing business concerns with handing over sensitive commercial details directly to government.

He said Australian businesses were “far behind the curve” in terms of capitalising on data analytics for commercial gains. The DGA could help enterprises figure out how to make these advances without eroding public trust, Dalidakis said.

DGA is the brainchild of the Association for Data-driven Marketing and Advertising (ADMA).

The founding board counts analytics and business executives from NAB, Westpac, Veda, IAG, Allens, Coles, Woolworths, Qantas, Data Republic, Scentre Group, Signal, and Quantium.