Friday 29th November 2024, 09:00–09:15 (Australia/Melbourne), Holme Room
Today’s digital information ecosystem is complex. There are unprecedented amounts of personal information collected and shared for different purposes. It is unreasonable to expect Australians to engage meaningfully with notices from the large number of entities seeking to handle their personal information. Industry has been vocal about having to shoulder the cost of privacy regulation. But what is it costing Australian consumers?
The Consumer Policy Research Centre devised and undertook a unique social research study using an online ‘privacy sweep’ methodology across a 24 hour period from 15-16 May 2024. The aim of our research was to pilot a methodology designed to quantify the burden of time and effort placed on Australian consumers in what it takes to manage their online privacy in 2024 in Australia. This research contributes to CPRC's ongoing recommendations to the Federal Government to take a series of measures to reform the Privacy Act.
A group of citizen scientists participated in a 24 hour 'privacy sweep', which involved two tasks and a series of evaluative metrics to be undertaken for each new website or app visited within the 24 hour period. Task 1 required participants to locate and adjust the privacy settings of every website or app they engaged with, whereby the survey timed how long each action took. Task 2 required participants to use an automated word counter to conduct a word count of the privacy and cookie policies of the apps and websites they were using, logging this information into an online survey. Ease of performing each task, and understanding the policies was measured using a series of 5 point Likert scale metrics.
In total, 98 records were collected from a group of nine citizen scientists from consumer organisations and universities including CHOICE, Reset, the University of Melbourne, and CPRC; eight were based in Australia and one based in Europe. We discovered that on 45% of occasions, participants found it difficult to locate and adjust privacy settings. We also found that each site or app required anywhere from two to ten minutes of time for Australian participants to locate and adjust privacy settings. This was in stark contrast to the participant based in Europe who spent on average only 3.1 seconds per website to manage privacy settings. The sweep also revealed that the average word count of a privacy policy was 13,323 words, equating to an average reading time of 56 minutes per policy, and when aggregated over the 24 hour period, would take 14 hours on average to read all policies encountered.
Our research highlights a mismatch between community expectations and data practices. While businesses can quantify regulatory costs, the time and effort required by Australian consumers to manage their digital privacy often goes unaccounted for.
This methodology provided a rapid turnaround study that quantified the time impost placed on consumers in 2024 in Australia to manage their own privacy. While this pilot test was modest in size, it could easily be expanded in scope and tracked over time to determine if businesses practices are changing as a result of government pressure or changes to legislation that we hope to see very soon.
Marianne has worked in consumer and social sciences for close to two decades, having worked for the Cancer Council South Australia, Food Standards Australia New Zealand, and a leading national market research agency. Most recently, she ran a boutique social research and insights agency in Adelaide, working with government agencies, not-for-profit organisations, and businesses.
Marianne is an experienced quantitative and qualitative researcher, and is insistent in her ethical and rigorous approach used in the design and execution of any investigation or evaluation. She thoroughly enjoys undertaking research to understand consumer and stakeholder perspectives, guide effective communications, and ultimately shape policy and guide strategy.
As the Senior Research & Engagement Advisor at the CPRC, Marianne designs and undertakes comprehensive consumer research to inform and underpin policy recommendations that will protect and advocate for consumers.