In April 2017, the Responsible Finance Forum VIII was held in Berlin, Germany. Dr Katharine Kemp spoke on behalf of the UNSW Digital Financial Services Research Team at the Forum, which this year focused on the highly topical theme, “Protecting Consumer Data and Privacy”.

Katharine presented to the plenary session on “Data Protection for Financial Services Consumers in Developing Countries: Alternatives to the Flawed Consent Model”, highlighting weaknesses in the traditional “informed consent”, or “notice” and “choice”, approach to consumer data protection.

While the collection, use and sharing of customer data by financial services providers is frequently justified on the basis that the customer has consented to these activities, such consent is often illusory, particularly in the context of modern data practices, including “big data”, complex data aggregation and sharing relationships, and algorithm-driven assessments and marketing. In fact, most consumers do not know when, how, why or by whom their data is being collected, used or shared, let alone the consequences of these practices.

The UNSW Digital Financial Services Research Team will shortly publish a working paper based on this presentation.

Weaknesses in the “informed consent” approach continued to be discussed throughout the Forum, including as part of the focus sessions on Policy Regulation and Supervision and Consumer Perspectives and Attitudes.

Other presenters at the Forum ranged from representatives of central banks, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United Nations-based Better than Cash Alliance, to the Assistant General Counsel for Privacy and Data Protection for MasterCard, and the Chief Operating Officer of Kopo Kopo Inc.

Recommendations from the Forum were presented to the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) Forum held in Berlin in the first week of May and included in the G20 GPFI action agenda.

More information about the Responsible Finance Forum can be found here: https://responsiblefinanceforum.org

Photos:© Responsible Finance Forum, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. Photo: Frederic Schweizer.