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Consent and Consumer Manipulation - Principles and Rules for a Fairer Platform Economy
Public online workshop, 2 - 5:15pm 16 September 2020 AEST
Paper workshop co-hosted by Dr Damian Clifford RF of the HMI project at ANU, and Prof Jeannie Paterson, co-Director, CAIDE at University of Melbourne - 2pm-5:15pm, 16 September 2020.
Standard form notices and contracts are uniformly used online as detailed information must be communicated to consumers, with some of this in fact mandated by data privacy legislation. There have however, been repeated examples of how such texts have been used to disadvantage or even deceive consumers and these raise questions regarding the boundaries of consent and the role of consumer protection, contract law and data privacy law more generally. In its recent Digital Platforms Inquiry – Final Report, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recommended the reform of the Privacy Act and the Australian Consumer Law in response to the significant challenges to consumer privacy brought about by our use and reliance on technology. These recommendations reflect the desire to empower consumers and provide them with some control over their personal information but also the increasing role played by the ACCC in assessing the legitimacy of the practices used to obtain consent. This workshop, led by HMI RF Damian Clifford in collaboration with Prof Jeannie Paterson co-Director CAIDE, aims to draw on these developments to reflect on the need to extend the debate beyond the illegitimacy of deceptive tactics and therefore, to consider consumer empowerment more generally.
A draft agenda can be found here.