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The pro-consumer privacy lobby speaks – and why the Federal Government listens on privacy reform clampdowns for cleanrooms, hashed emails, geolocation, loyalty data trading and new definitions of personal information

There’s little contention today that the pro-consumer privacy lobby is winning the war over industry on privacy reform – they’re informed on industry techniques, loaded with compelling consumer research and aligned entirely on the need for a clampdown on the collection and use of an individual’s online data trail. Former NSW Deputy Privacy Commissioner and Salinger Privacy boss Anna Johnston and Choice Consumer Data Advocate, Kate Bower unpack what and why they expect a series of hard, industry-challenging privacy reforms to land in parliament next month – that’s less than six weeks away. Just how deeply the $25bn-plus marketing supply chain and tens of thousands of practitioners will be impacted will become clear as the reforms are tabled in Federal Parliament. Johnston and Bower think the updated Act will go harder than anywhere in the world. Hashed emails will be classified as personal information. Trading of geolocation data will be out. Trading of loyalty scheme data – the stuff that powers retail media and a vast targeting-attribution industry – will require companies to prove they have lawful consent to do so and they won’t be able to deny services to those that say no. But consent, says Johnston, is a very fragile thing – and companies might actually be best off concentrating on one of the legislation’s central tenets: Fair and reasonable use of data. In other words, says Choice’s Bower, does what you are doing with customer’s data pass “the privacy pub test?” If it does, meeting a very high consent threshold doesn’t apply. Right now, most are badly flunking the test. Johnston has a checklist for brands that likely have a 12-month compliance window to get houses in order. But ultimately, she says $50m fines are now in play and that “some product lines and business processes will have to stop … and frankly, that is the point of the reforms.” Cleanrooms, she suggests, may come under intense scrutiny.

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The mindset shift on customer data preparing Big4 for Privacy Act’s ‘radical shift of risk’ – and seven steps every brand should now take

Big4 CEO Sean Jenner, says it’s all about respect. Getting the holiday park operator on the path to privacy by design has been an all-of-business ambition stretching from new tools, systems and processes to a cultural mindset that recognises customer data as something brands are given permission to utilise, not own. It’s a big job “eating the elephant”, as Jenner puts it, but necessary for businesses to ensure they’re not crippled by the transformative changes Australia’s new-look privacy legislation is expected to throw their way. The key is to recognise this is as much about humans and respect for data as it is about operational change, Salinger Privacy principal, Anna Johnston, says: “Privacy compliance cannot be seen as the job of just one person, it’s not a tickbox exercise, it can’t be automated … You can’t avoid the privacy rules by applying some basic de-identification techniques and thinking you are now exempt.” She outlines a seven-point plan every brand should now take.

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‘Home loan opportunities have tripled’: NAB, ANZ, Commbank eye huge ROI from real-time decisioning – as retail and consumer brands move in

Most of Australia’s biggest banks, along with globals like Wells Fargo, Citibank, and Rabobank are betting large on Real-Time Interaction Management (RTIM) – also called real-time decisioning. It doesn’t come cheaply: Forrester Research suggests average annual costs if circa $1.7m, sometimes running as high as $7m. But those investments are paying off – and some banks are generating returns into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Hence customers tend to pick and stick, with 80 per cent saying they are happy with their suppliers. Pega and SAS dominate – with the former in particular carving out Australia’s addressable market. But there’s also room for others in a category that extends into journey orchestration, personalisation, and cross-channel marketing – particularly as retail and consumer brands start to pile in.

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