The federal government’s privacy proposals would increase uncertainty and add unnecessary complexity to the digital marketing sector, according to ADMA (Association for Data-driven Marketing and Advertising).
ADMA has responded to the attorney-general’s proposals flowing from the Privacy Act Review Report 2022 and aiming to "adequately protect Australians’ privacy in the digital age”.
The industry body says some of the proposals will effect little protection from bad actors and instead be burdensome on good actors.
ADMA says this would add confusion to the market and in some cases mean substantial societal detriment.
On direct marketing and targeting, the proposals would ”increase uncertainty” and add “unnecessary complexity” to the existing compliance framework in digital marketing.
ADMA's concerns add to those raised by the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) which says the proposals by the government may have the unintended consequence of putting potentially harmful ads in front of children and vulnerable groups.
The advertisers argue that without targeted marketing, advertising for categories such as alcohol, gambling, credit cards and occasional food or drinks may be viewed and cause harm to inappropriate audiences.
The government is proposing for flexibility in the Privacy Act and says "strong privacy laws are essential to Australians' trust and confidence in the digital economy".
The aim of the reform, according to the Attorney-General's Department, is to strengthen the protection of personal information and the control individuals have over it.
The government believe entities should take appropriate responsibility for ensuring that their information handling practices are fair and not harmful.
They also propose greater protection for personal information before it is used in ways which have high privacy risks. Individuals need more transparency about what is being done with their information and more control over what happens with it.
Specifically, some of the government's proposals include:
- to strengthen privacy protections for children and people experiencing vulnerability
- improve individuals’ control over their personal information, including through a right to seek erasure of personal information
- give individuals more transparency and control over direct marketing, targeting and sale of their personal information
- strengthen the requirement on entities to keep personal information secure and destroy or de-identify it when it is no longer needed
ADMA has held several formal and informal conversations with marketers from a range of businesses to understand the potential impact and frame its response on behalf of the marketing industry.
In its discussions with various industry sectors, the ADMA noted that sector specific regulation should be simple to implement on its own, but could prove challenging when trying to balance with other compliance requirements.
"For example, financial services members gave real-life examples of situations where they try to balance Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements and other financial industry regulations from a tax, compliance, data retention, and security perspective," said the ADMA.
"A genuine fear in this Review is that a revised privacy statute will add complex layers of conflict, increasing anxiety around ensuring companies are in full compliance across the various legislation, industry codes, best practice requirements and more."
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.