WORLD CONSUMER RIGHTS DAY CAMPAIGN PACK
WCRD Briefing:
clear and
informed choices
Building a digital world
consumers can trust
|1
2 | WORLD CONSUMER RIGHTS DAY CAMPAIGN PACK
What do we mean by Clear and informed
choices?
Being able to make clear and informed choices helps
consumers know how to use products and services safely
and effectively. This briefing looks at two main aspects of
clear and transparent information: the use and control
of personal data, and information about products and
services.
What’s the problem with collection and use of
personal data online?
Powerful digital technology enables companies to collect,
store and share vast quantities of consumers’ personal
data. Many consumers understand that access to some
data is necessary to support functionality, but few are
aware of why other information, such as location or
shopping habits, is collected. Neither do they understand
their rights over their own data.
Seventy-two per cent of people do not know what
information is collected about them by companies online,
and only 31% say that they know what rights they have
with regard to this data.1 Globally, 83% of people agree
that there should be new rules about how governments,
2
companies and other internet users use their data.
Concern about how much data is collected, loss of
privacy, security risks and other consequences is growing.
In 2016, 57%of consumers worldwide reported that they
were more concerned about their online privacy than
3
they were in 2014.
Alongside concerns, many consumers would welcome
the opportunity to get more value out of their data, for
example by having more control and access so that they
can make better decisions or understand more about
4
their own behaviour. More control also means that
people can alter incorrect data that is held about them.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Examples of policies and initiatives
Privacy by Design
Many companies are leading the way in trusted data
practice that gives users more control, either by
incorporating privacy into the original design of a product
or service, or by clearly explaining how customer data is
used, and enabling different options:
»»LEGO’s website, which connects children through
games, has no third party cookies or connections
to social media accounts, and advises users to use
pseudonyms.
»»TOMTOM fitness tracker features a complete autodelete of a person’s data after 24 hours, an easy-toread privacy policy and has a system designed so
the company knows nothing about who is using it.
• In Singapore, strict rules mean that consumers have
the right to ask businesses to delete or correct their
data if need be. Failure of businesses to comply is a
criminal offence. There is also a national Do Not Call
registry so consumers can easily opt out of all SMS
advertising.
5
• Rights of access to data: 6the UK midata scheme, the
US Green Button scheme and the French Mes Infos 7
scheme all aim to support consumer access to their
transaction data (held by companies or public bodies).
• Taking access to data further is the idea of data
portability, which enables individuals to ask
companies to provide them with their personal
data in an easy-to-use format, so they can easily
transfer it between providers. This should make it
much easier to switch, or to power new data-driven
decision support tools. The new European Union
data protection regulation makes provision for data
portability and therefore enables consumers to have
much greater control over information.
• Understanding how data is used to make decisions:
data input by consumers, or data that is assumed
about them from their behaviour can be used to
make decisions on credit or prices. In the US, laws
that prevent the refusal of credit on grounds of
certain discriminatory factors also include the right to
know why an application was rejected.8
IPSOS global trends 2014 Personalisation vs Privacy
https://www.cigionline.org/internet-survey-2016
https://www.cigionline.org/internet-survey-2016#more-concerned-with-privacy
As above
http://www.gocompare.com/money/midata/
http://www.greenbuttondata.org/
http://mesinfos.fing.org/english/
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0347-your-equal-credit-opportunity-rights#right
WORLD CONSUMER RIGHTS DAY CAMPAIGN PACK
|3
These aid transparency and fairness. The new European Union data protection regulation also includes rights
for consumers to know what data about them is being processed and for what reason – this puts the onus on
companies to explain how they make decisions about consumers.
What’s the problem with information provision online?
It is not only difficult to understand how data is used online. It is very hard for consumers to get clear, meaningful and
verifiable information on all sorts of digital products and services. This causes problems in many ways - from being
unclear on the speed and cost of broadband, to not being able to make comparisons between the real cost of products
bundled together like mobile, broadband and TV streaming, or simply not knowing where a company is based and how
to contact them if things go wrong. Some companies use ‘drip pricing,’ which involves adding in options along the way
so that the final cost is only clear at the very end of the payment process.
The tendency to put lots of information in lengthy terms and conditions puts a heavy burden on consumers to digest
and translate huge amounts of information. One study estimates it would take a person 76 working days if they were
9
to read all the Terms and Conditions documents that they sign up to in a year online.
It is 10
now more commonly understood that hardly anyone reads the small print: a global consumer survey found
63% of people admit to not reading terms and conditions in full. This is not down to laziness, but more practical
considerations. As a White House policy advisor observed:
“Only in some fantasy world do users actually read these notices and understand their implications before clicking to
indicate their consent...The provider offers a complex, take‐it‐or‐ leave‐it set of terms, while the user, in practice, can
allocate only a few seconds to evaluating the offer.”
Clearly more needs to be done to make sure information online – in particular that contained in terms and conditions
- can be more easily understood. Greater transparency would be the first step in developing a better understanding of
products, and more fair and reasonable terms for consumers. Understanding the pricing, functionality, terms of use,
business models and being assured that information and reviews are accurate and verified will give greater confidence
to consumers.
Examples of policies and initiatives
Netherlands
Consumentenbond campaigned for ISPs to publish the
actual speed a consumer would get based on their
precise location.
New Zealand
Consumers NZ ran a ‘Ditch the ticks’ campaign to get an
online airline to stop its practice of ‘drip pricing’, where
the final information on price was only obvious at the
final payment stage.
UK
Some mobile phone companies are now breaking down
prices to clearly show the cost of the handset, and the
cost of the contract, making it much easier to see how
much the phone actually costs. Broadband adverts are
required to be much clearer on contract length, full costs
including all installation fees after research found 81% of
consumers could not correctly calculate the total cost of
the package.11
9. http://journals.law.stanford.edu/stanford-technology-law-reviewpdf/determann-socialmediaprivacy.pdf
10. http://www.ipsosglobaltrends.com/personalisation-vs-privacy.html
11. https://www.asa.org.uk/News-resources/Media-Centre/2016/Insight-We-confirm-tougher-approach-to-broadband-price-claims-in-ads.aspx#.WEbI07KLTcc
4 | WORLD CONSUMER RIGHTS DAY CAMPAIGN PACK
Advocacy call to action
CI Members can use World Consumer Rights Day 2017 to call on national governments or companies to make online
information and processes clear and transparent by:
• Putting in place national data protection policies, if they don’t already exist.
• Properly enforcing data protection policies that are already in place, and strengthening them to include: (1) class
action rights for consumer bodies so they can act on behalf of consumers when their data protection rights have
been breached, (2) the ‘right to data portability’, to allow consumers to carry their personal data over to another
provider, (3) the right to ‘explicability’ for decisions made about you based on data collected about you, and (4)
privacy by design as a requirement.
• Establishing greater clarity for terms and conditions by presenting them prominently on all websites, and in a
standardised format so that they can more easily be analysed and compared. They should also be written in a way
that is easy to understand, in appropriate language, and with a short summary available to all.
• Ensuring clearer pricing by requiring appropriate services to be priced per unit rather than per offer and by ending
‘drip pricing’.
By sharing information with CI and using the hashtag #BetterDigitalWorld, your activities will contribute to a global day
of action.
Further reading
Results of a major survey into people’s attitudes towards privacy online: http://www.ipsosglobaltrends.com/
personalisation-vs-privacy.html
A global consumer survey of trust online, including attitudes on data: https://www.cigionline.org/internet-survey-2016
A brief overview of the EU’s new data protection rules here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36037324
And detailed information on the provisions of the EU’s new data protection rules here: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/
data-protection/reform/index_en.htm
A project to map and rank what’s contained in terms and conditions: https://rankingdigitalrights.org/index2015/
indicators/p1/