Big Data and Big Analytics have policymakers in a frenzy. In some parts of the world this is leading to regulation that provides greater protection for privacy. But what does privacy have to do with competition?

There are heated debates about whether stricter privacy regulation will shut down competition and innovation or whether it will drive competitive forces in a data-driven economy.

Much of the debate has been focused on Europe’s latest Big Tech missile, the General Data Protection Regulation. But in the US also, some policymakers are considering following suit.

This episode of Competition Lore features Peter Harris, Chairman of the Australian Productivity Commission, one of Australia’s leading public policy thinkers and the architect behind an innovative policy reform, a proposed comprehensive consumer right to data.

It’s a reform slated to power up competition by empowering consumers while at the same time bolstering privacy. More broadly it is a reform aimed at creating a social licence for data collection and use, for the benefit of us all.

If you would like more information about the Consumer Data Right, you can read the Productivity Commission’s 2017 data report here and the Australian Government’s response, and other related material, here.

You might also be interested in this:

Platform power and privacy protection: The case for policy innovation, 2018

Featuring regular cut-through interviews with leading thinkers, movers and shakers, Competition Lore is a podcast series that engages us all in a debate about the transformative potential and risks of digitalised competition.

Join Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne, to tackle what it means to participate as a competitor, consumer or citizen in a digital economy and society.

Competition Lore is produced by Written & Recorded.