10 July 2024

AUSTRALIANS CAN LOSE 14 AND A HALF HOURS A DAY ON DATA PRIVACY PLIGHT

NEW RESEARCH SHOWS AUSTRALIA’S ‘NOTIFICATION AND CONSENT’ PRIVACY PROTECTIONS PLACES TOO MUCH BURDEN ON CONSUMERS.

Recent Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC) research reveals the average Australian would require up to 14.5 hours daily to manage their digital privacy effectively, with 30 minutes dedicated to adjusting privacy settings and 14 hours required to read all the privacy policies for digital services used in just a single day.

This research comes on the heels of a social media inquiry yesterday that also examined privacy concerns on popular platforms, further highlighting the growing issue of data privacy in the digital age. ​

Deputy CEO and Digital Policy Director, Chandni Gupta said, “This study clearly demonstrates that the current ‘notice and consent’ model of privacy protection is failing Australian consumers.

“Australians would need to spend an average of two minutes per website managing their privacy, which is almost 40 times longer than the participant based in Europe who spent just 3.1 seconds.

“The Federal Government needs to update our privacy laws to make businesses use good privacy practices by default, rather than leaving the burden on consumers to read and engage with impossibly long privacy policies,” Ms Gupta said.

Key research findings include:

• Australians would need to spend an average of 30 minutes daily to fully adjust privacy settings on websites and apps rather than accept the company default.
• Reading privacy policies for daily used sites/apps would take an average of 14 hours.
• 45% of participants struggled to locate and adjust privacy settings.
• A participant based in Europe spent significantly less time at an average of only 3.1 seconds per website or app managing privacy settings, compared to nearly 2 minutes for Australians.
• Some privacy policies exceed 300,000 words in length.
• Many sites either lack options to adjust privacy settings or make the process unnecessarily complex.
• Privacy policies are often lengthy and difficult to understand.

“It’s important to remember that this isn’t accidental, these practices are unfair by design.

“Policies or settings may be well hidden making it difficult to locate or change, they may be very long and full of legal jargon, counting on us not paying attention,” Ms Gupta said.

The research uncovered some of the worst privacy practices among widely used platforms and websites, including Instagram, Outlook, Google and Samsung.

“It’s unreasonable to expect individuals to spend hours each day managing their digital privacy – ideally what’s needed is an opt-in approach to data sharing ensuring choice and control are in the hands of Australians not big businesses.”

The report calls on the Federal Government to implement stronger privacy reforms.

“Australians have a right to an online experience where they aren’t stuck in a time drain, with their data automatically up for grabs and used in ways that leaves them worse off,” Ms Gupta said.

More information, including the full report, The cost of managing your privacy. Insights from a 24-hour privacy sweep is available at: cprc.org.au/report/cost-of-privacy.

CPRC Deputy CEO and Digital Policy Director Chandni Gupta is available for comment.

Contact CPRC Communication Manager Liliana Campos via media@cprc.org.au or ph: 0493 539 466.