Australian Watchdog Puts Data Brokers Like Oracle, Equifax on Radar

Australia’s competition watchdog on Monday asked consumers, businesses and other relevant stakeholders to provide their views about the business practices of data brokers in an attempt to regulate the country’s digital platform services sector.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will consider products and services supplied by major data brokers including Oracle, Equifax, Ireland headquartered Experian and global tech firm LiveRamp among other several providers to make a report on the sector.

“There is little transparency and awareness of how data brokers operate in Australia despite the vast amounts of information they collect about Australian consumers and the central role they play in enabling the exchange of information between businesses,” ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.

Data brokers generally gather information like personal details of customers including their browsing and purchasing behaviour from a wide range of sources such as mobile applications, social media sites and card payment providers.

The report will explore how third-party data brokers collect and use information to create products and services and if there may be competition and consumer issues arising from this, the ACCC said in a statement.

The regulator’s digital platforms branch has been conducting a five-year inquiry till 2025 to inquire into the markets for the supply of digital services.

The report will focus on businesses that collect information from third-party sources and share or sell data to other organisations and, on the off chance that there might be competition and customer issues emerging from it. It will be handed over to the treasurer in March 2024, the ACCC added.

© Thomson Reuters 2023